Snoopy58 said:
PFT is paying your employer for your training, which isn't what happens at SWA. Most guys had to pay for training somewhere along the way, in the form of renting airplanes and paying CFI's for instruction. Some got their ATP "for free" when they upgraded to captain at a "regional" airline, most had to pay for the training. Some guys got 737 ratings from the military or Vanguard or ATA or someplace; please explain to me how they "PFTed."
Any place you get the type rating is fine. Some places have additional "bennies," such as a chat with a People Department rep, but the type is the type is the type as far as the application goes. (They don't care how much, nor even if, you paid for it.)
Man, you're all over the board. First you insist that it isn't PFT at SWA because you aren't paying them directly. Then that "most everyone has PFTed' because they got a CFI or rented an airplane, and finally, you seem to think I believe that obtaining ratings in the normal course of training and upgrading at an airline is PFTing, when of course the opposite is true. Frankly, your statements and rationalizations are so convoluted I don't know where to begin.
But I've heard all before...your rationalizations..they don't wash. So what if the company doesn't require you to pay them directly for training, which is up and above what's required for the position? (in SWA's case, a 737 type). If you go purchase it out of your own pocket, then yes indeed you have PFTed. 15 years ago plenty of fledgling commuter pilots were paying FlightSafety for initial training as required by some regional airlines, not the airline directly....that was PFT...there's no difference here. Getting an ATP during an upgrade at an air carrier, with the addition of a written exam, is essentially the same ride as the type-ride...no extra cost to anyone just extra paperwork for the Feds.
Sure, a few people show up at SWA's doorstep with the type rating and experience aquired at another carrier, etc, but everyone knows the vast majority of these ratings are worthles except-for-the-purpose-of-applying-at-Southwest wet-ink rubber stamps. With zero time-in-type and no operational experience, it's not as if one can reasonably "take it anywhere" to get a job (this is unlike say...a CFI certificate, where you can). If SWA didn't exist, these little quickie 737 type-rating schools wouldn't exist either.
But the main reason they require this is of course $$$, and you may as well be paying them directly because SW reaps the huge economic benefit of lower insurance premiums by having type-rated F/Os in the cockpit from day one, and I'm sure they thank all those who kowtow to their little game. More $$$s are more $$$s, no matter if it's in the form of money they save or money you give them.
The "run out and buy one" type-rating thing also serves another purpose of course... as a Loyalty Test for prospective SWA Cult members. They know that if you fervently do THAT for them, and rationalize it away complete with the goofy, devout grin, then they can pretty much count on convincing you of anything as an employee.
But hey, to each his/her own. However, I won't be suprised if at some point we find SWA pilots giving away flowers in the terminal while bubbly applicants are out on the ramp, hand-washing brown and orange 737s as part of the interview process.
