Posted on the SWA forum:

Would like to get some perspective on the above statement. Would also like to get an idea if the above is entirely true, is it better on other fleets?

As a SWA guy, I constantly hear how SWA is, despite our flaws, superior to the OAL's like UA. If so many guys are saying it, there has to be some truth to it, right?

Also, I understand there are a lot of caveats, but in a general sense, how much time is it taking these days to upgrade to NB and then, WB captain? Are many guys hanging out for a while as NB/WB FO?

Finally, are you guys in mediation yet? If not, why not?

 

1 year upgrades depending on the domicile for 320,737,756

WB CA for me will be 15 years as predicted by our seniority charts.

 

I stay at about 17-18 days off on the 737. Next month I actually had 19 off originally but picked up a good day turn. This one is 18. 18 in April. 13 off month after month is pretty terrible. I've never seen that here. The lack of an ability to drop and swap is only half true. It is difficult to straight drop. I can swap quite a bit, especially for bad/worse days. I've only straight dropped a trip once. A few other times another pilot took it off my schedule.

 

widebody. If that matters to you then you have your answer.
If you’re simply comparing 737 schedules:
14 days off 88 hours in may
14 days off 88 hours in June
not exactly super desirable.
737 at ~78%

 

Great for you. Please give some data on your demographic to the OP.

What we have here is an "outlier". I don't have a comprehensive analysis of all bases, but this poster most likely fits into 1 of 2 categories.
1) Upper 30% of seniority in his category (737 SFO, 737 ORD, etc) which I'm guessing is true since he started a monthly schedule with 19 days off. Looking at 3 different FO bases for Jun, I saw maybe 1 or 2 with that many days off starting.

2) He hustles quite a bit to get his schedule to this point. We have a few tools that you can use to trade significantly to make your schedule better. I'd say these tools require a great deal of effort each month to get them to improve your schedule to be this way. Can it be done? Yes? Is it as easy as the hustle at SWA? Not based on my own straw polls of friends at SWA.

Overall, hopefully there will be some posters here that will have some experience at both SWA and UAL to give some better perspective.

My own opinion is that most pilots at SWA tend to have at least 15-16 days off per month without much effort at all as a jr lineholder and from what I understand reserves at SWA get min 14-15 days off?

So my gut feeling is the "typical" SWA pilot gets on average about 2 days off more than a typical UAL pilot. That adds up. That's 24 days off a year. Because of this flexibility, I'd say typically a SWA pilot will pick up a trip or two here and there to add to their schedule and make a bit more $$. You can do that here at United, but almost no flexibility when you have 12-13 days off. You can't go below 10 days off because of our contract as the union doesn't want pilots to go below that amount of time off. If you only have 12-13 off, impossible to pick up a 4 day (which is most of our flying). If the company built more 2-3 day pairings, that would go a long way to improve QOL, but for some reason it doesn't.

In addition, because of the way SWA builds their schedules, you go to work and work your tail off. You have to be senior at UAL to get a schedule this way. A lot more unproductive schedules where you work 1-3 legs a day with 2 being average on the NB. We've tried to get rigs to force a more productive schedule, but it never seems to work out since we just don't turn aircraft as efficiently as SWA.

For me: I'm an instructor at our training center. I get 13 days off 90 hrs every month 12 months a year. It's a grind, but it allows me to be home 95% of the time but with early/late training schedule being a con.

 

Swa pilots holding a line get 16-20 off a month. Jr guys usually 16-17, Sr guys 18-20. 20 is pretty rare and base dependent….usually all day trip lines. When I was bidding 17% as a FO I couldn’t hold the day trip lines but was doing 2 days and Tues-Thurs 3 days and getting 18 off easy.

Swa rsv pilots are getting 15/16 off depending how many days in the month. Any flying added to a rsv day increases guarantee. Rsv day is worth 6, a rigged 2 day is worth 13 so your credit would go from 90 to 91 if you didn’t do another trip the rest of the month. Rsv is busy and will usually only get 1 maybe 2 days off from being used but credit will be in the 110-120 range.

You can lose days off on the month to month overlap but depending how you bid the next month….you can fix that.

 

Just a data point. One trade per month on the big pick to bad day/worse day trade out of trips. 20 days or more off every month, so I get paid less @~70 average credit monthly for the year. The credit is higher than you would expect with that time off only due to the fact that vacation months tend to drive MPG as controlling (bid min credit with a net MPG in the 80s). I don’t do premium unless it’s a trade that reduces my schedule, so just a few trips during the year. That is generally only possible in the summer as most PPU is in the real time window and I don’t want to work more. 17% in base.

 

I bid around 60% on the 737 West Coast with a year and a few months seniority. I average 14 days off with about 77-80 hours credit. I can usually trade about 1 or 2 trips to better my schedule.

Im usually awarded a few red eyes with other trips being commutable on at least 1 end to my home. Very occasionally can trade into a LIH or OGG if that’s your thing. Can usually get CUN.

just throwing out more stats for reference.

 

That is so much better than I've seen here at United at the Narrowbody, I would suggest that if anyone has no desire to fly WB jets, you won't get a better schedule than at SWA.

I can say with certainty as a jr lineholder at United, you will most likely only have 13-14 days off a month and you won't see 16+ until at least better than 50%. With current movement vector, you could easily see 50% as an FO on a NB in SFO or EWR within 18 months.

If you like to do layovers and try and visit a destination for a 24 hr sit, I'm guessing United has more options for that type flying than SWA does. But, I'd venture to say most would rather work and go home, and have 4 days more off a month, so 48 more days off a year at SWA than a Jr FO at United.

 

I have 14 off for June (35-ish% in NB category), which credits me about 75 hours. Two trips are not commutable on one end, so that puts me down to 12 days off (and paying for two hotels). . Every single day is red red red for coverage.

they’ve also figured out how to get rid of premium (for my seat, anyway). So, somehow every day is extremely red for coverage, but they always seem to cover all the pairings.

this contract needs some serious QOL stuff.