Amazing some of the attitudes on this board. I am an old fart and in the past there were some great airlines. Real airlines not just some swinging dick that could sell a ticket for less than the guy next door. The hiring was not done via some internet chat sight and while there were a host of chatacters that slipped through the cracks, for the most part they were a pretty good bunch of pilots and had a sense of character that is not always seen on this board.
Story in point. I have a good friend whose father, a medically retired UAL pilot passed away after a lengthy period of illness. His mother who also depended on the UAL retirement and more importantly medical is seriously ill with Alzheimers. (sp)? Basically this person is at serious risk for a lack of health insurance and the burden of dedicated care that she needs to sustain life, not just quality life, but life period. This is just one of many things that can wipe you out financially in a nano second.
Therefore I hope all of you with such insight and life experiences have at least a million dollars or more to assist if and when something like this strikes you or your family. I doubt if there is enough SWA stock in anyones portfolio to handle some of the really sh@#y things that can come your way, overnight in some cases.
If anyone on this board thinks that SWA or JetBlue are immune to the same issues that have befallen some of the great airlines of the past, and not just ones here in the US, but all over the world, then you are doomed to repeat the same failures, although it might be for different reason.
A pretty good book to read is called "Sky Gods". It chronicles the glory days of hiring and flying for Pan Am starting in the mid sixties. Pretty heady stuff that would certainly lure most if not all aspiring airline pilots to believe that they were bullet proof. Witten by a former PAA/DAL pilot.
Getting long winded here so I'll get of my soap box and just say that first of all getting a handle on an individuals sistuation via a news paper account is risky at best. Secondly there are so many variables to life that those who preach are at best just blowing smoke up your ass.
Story in point. I have a good friend whose father, a medically retired UAL pilot passed away after a lengthy period of illness. His mother who also depended on the UAL retirement and more importantly medical is seriously ill with Alzheimers. (sp)? Basically this person is at serious risk for a lack of health insurance and the burden of dedicated care that she needs to sustain life, not just quality life, but life period. This is just one of many things that can wipe you out financially in a nano second.
Therefore I hope all of you with such insight and life experiences have at least a million dollars or more to assist if and when something like this strikes you or your family. I doubt if there is enough SWA stock in anyones portfolio to handle some of the really sh@#y things that can come your way, overnight in some cases.
If anyone on this board thinks that SWA or JetBlue are immune to the same issues that have befallen some of the great airlines of the past, and not just ones here in the US, but all over the world, then you are doomed to repeat the same failures, although it might be for different reason.
A pretty good book to read is called "Sky Gods". It chronicles the glory days of hiring and flying for Pan Am starting in the mid sixties. Pretty heady stuff that would certainly lure most if not all aspiring airline pilots to believe that they were bullet proof. Witten by a former PAA/DAL pilot.
Getting long winded here so I'll get of my soap box and just say that first of all getting a handle on an individuals sistuation via a news paper account is risky at best. Secondly there are so many variables to life that those who preach are at best just blowing smoke up your ass.
