Leaderboard

ALPA makes comparisons each time a company is in negotiations. Here's a public one: https://www3.alpa.org/portals/alpa/jetblue2/files/JetBlue Contract Comparison March 2015L - web.pdf start around slide 20. edit: To understate it, vacation doesn't work anything like active duty leave. If you don't have a trip on your schedule, you go where you want to go. Want 2 weeks in Hawaii in June? You'll only get paid for those 2 weeks if you bid and are awarded official vacation, but there are 1000 ways to get those 2 weeks free. Once you have some seniority, there's almost no reason you can't do what you want when you want. Only question is whether you're getting paid for those days off or not.

I just saw some slides with the so-called "Bonus" take rate. The year isn't over but it's dismal so far. Only 14% of eligible 11F's have taken it. 0/10 F-15C pilots took it. And 3/32 F-35 pilots.

If you want a decent apples to apples comparison… look at a current / recent issue and go to “the grid” https://www.aerocrewnews.com/category/issues/ it will all be Greek for a while … but it will help you at least learn some of the terminology and which questions to ask

Live off base. People think that the 10 minute drive to work will somehow make or break their UPT experience, it won't. If anything it's 10 minutes to clear your nugget going to/from work. Get a roommate and a decent house and throw some ragers. Your future self will thank you.

Ditto, and if it comes to mass "killings," emphasis should be on cancer, heart disease, auto accidents, drug abuse and the plethora of other causes which take far more people out than shootings! https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/dataview/how-americans-die/ Of all the ways to leave this life, being a victim of a mass shooting is pretty far down the list of things to actually worry about! That narrative is about as ridiculous as certain ethnic groups who worry about being shot by the police. Facts show they are much more likely to lose their lives from a variety of other situations, but we all know that claim is not the driving force behind the movement! But never let a good crisis go to waste!

Can’t disagree there…but the memo even states that leadership shouldn’t ask people if they’ve had the shot or not. Though I am interested in seeing if commanders attempt to take admin/disciplinary action against those who haven’t had the shot and stop wearing masks…it will open up an even bigger can of worms.

Overwhelmingly the people I've met who have adopted have been pro-life. Most have been deeply religious.

Ok, I’m game to hear your “debrief of lack of effective leadership.” However for context I’d like to know three things up front: What US elected leader did demonstrate effective leadership during the outset of C19 pandemic, or did they all initially bow to recommendations of “experts” who we know in retrospect were completely wrong (no outside transmission yet they locked us up and closed beaches, no surface spread yet they had us Clorox wiping groceries like idiots, etc.)? I’m trying to separate your analysis of Trump’s leadership from the leadership & recommendations from Fauci, CDC, WHO, NIH, etc. Do you acknowledge the unprecedented alliance of democratic political operatives, major media sources, and insurgent insiders within the government who conspired together to promote lies, even at the expense of hurting Americans, in order to damage Trump politically while he was attempting to lead during the pandemic? And finally, are you happy with our current national leadership regarding COVID; all the clarity of thought and consistency of guidance emanating from our CDC and White House? providing your thoughts on the above questions will be helpful in filtering out genuine discussion from trolling.

Sure, I’m currently 4th year. SWA wasn’t initially huge on my radar either, but looking back and knowing what I know I probably would’ve targeted it. My guess is that’s what most guys from the other majors would say about their own airline too! Cons: - You’ll fly a 737…kind of cramped, non-Maxes are noisy, old timey overhead panel, etc. It’s a bigger deal to some than others depending on personal desire for variety or something big or going to the other side of the world. - Current year 1-4 pay lags the other majors, then it is about equal year 5 and moves ahead (of narrowbody scales) after that. Still, it doesn’t reach senior wide body pay elsewhere. - Days can get busy…3-leg days are probably average, 2 or 4-leg days are common, and 1 or 5-leg days exist (somewhat rare). So in a same duty day you’re doing more briefings, more up-down, ears popping, etc. I find it helps the day go by quicker than droning, but definitely tough to catch up on the Netflix que—I mean study the FOM. - Generally younger and evenly spread pilot group, so retirements trickle compared to other guys. Upgrade seems to always be at 8 years, give or take. - No long call reserve, and nobody in the pilot group who has to go back to the sims because they’re overdue on landing currency. The game for senior guys at other airlines seems to be minimizing time at work while still getting paid. At SWA it’s maximizing pay for the time spent at work. Pros: - 11 domiciles around the country (except the PNW) so odds of being able to drive to work are fairly high. - Company stability…the airline is run by real nerds who stay for the long haul. 2020 was the first year in its 50 year history it hasn’t turned a profit, and its financials are always well ahead of industry-standard. - Job security: I’ll keep this as a pro because it’s still true SWA has never furloughed a pilot. But I’d caution that past performance doesn’t equal future success, and last year there was an uncharacteristic demand from the company for pilot concessions, which when we didn’t agree to, resulted in furlough notices going out. It’ll be interesting to see if it foreshadowed a more “traditional” labor relations posture than we’ve historically enjoyed moving forward. - Trip trade market: since everyone is qualified on the same aircraft you’ve got a robust ability to trade or pickup trips with other pilots or with the company (some of that can pay time and a half). Picking up flying to make more money is usually pretty easy (except during pandemics). The flip side is the only way to decrease your flying is to hope another pilot wants to take your trip from you, which is tougher to do in July than it is February. - Culture-wise, I won’t get too rah-rah other than to say it is exactly as it looks from the outside. The work groups pretty much all get along and nobody takes themselves too seriously. I haven’t flown with anyone yet who I wouldn’t fly with again. - Being home: I think 50% of trips are 3-days, and the remaining are divided between 1, 2, and 4 days. Average line is 3-on, 4-off (x4) or 4-on, 3-off (x3) plus a random day for 13 total days of work. And you’re never more than 3 time zones away, so you can stay in touch with the family, get business done on the road, or get home quick if there’s a family emergency. - No language barriers, NATS procedures, non-radar environments, ATC driving you into thunderstorms, etc. All told, it’s not perfect or everyone’s cup of tea (especially if they’ve got the widebody international itch), but it’s been a joy for me and never nearly as bad as some of the warnings I’d heard. Definitely a great place to spend a 30+ year career!

So, kind of like bops.net?

It’s not a good comparison to find another leader in the US that acted better - the actual comparison is whether another national figurehead or leader of another country was better at leading. That is the only valid comparison to the US president. And I challenge you to look at New Zealand or South Korea. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/16/new-zealand-coronavirus-success-446192 Youll find their population isn’t split down made up party lines, they listened to science, and they’re doing a lot better - not just by Covid numbers, but by perceived national unity. Also, I never implied that the current democratic leadership is good or better. I don’t even believe that. I sure as hell don’t think Cuomo or Newsom did a good job. What I do believe is that leadership over the last year from the United States, at a national level, was pathetic (similar to Brazil). But I guess everything now is polarized red vs blue and that’s the only lens most of you can see. This mentality is why Liz Cheney was just ousted.

Look, they made a paper about you guys! https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0250123 If you go far enough back in time you can even read the prequels: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5678397/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5597904/#!po=1.08696 Or we can give mommy Facebook groups and 4chan all the credit and totally ignore the fact that authority figures have an impact on common opinions. That works too.