F D X v. S W A

[LarryinTN]

All else being equal, I'd take FedEx. SWA would be my first choice out of the pax airlines, though.

 

[Whine Lover]

I've worked for two airlines:

-One Cargo/Freight

-One Pax

The freight job ended up being half day and half night flying. And I only flew, on average, 7.8 days per month over my six year tenure as a Freight Dog.

At the pax job I generally fly, on average, about 14 days per month.

Short and sweet?....I'll never fly freight again.

Why?...Read the thread about the mice dying early when they had their body clocks jacked around.

I can tell you from experience that pulling that all-nighter will make you feel like you are hungover without even having had the pleasure of the drunken debauchery prior. It's no fun, and you start to dread going to work on those trips you know you will be up all night.

If you don't die early, after years of feeling like Krap...you get to collect the "Pot of Gold" at the end of the rainbow. ( Retirement ) Good Luck with that Lottery.

Also, as somebody previously mentioned, it really does suck eating dinner and watching all the other crews heading into the hotel bar. Then, when you come down to the lobby at 10pm they are stumbling out and ready for A) the Room Party with the FA's, B) Letterman / Leno, or C) rubbing one out if the Room Party doesn't "work out".

You, on the other hand, WANT to go to sleep...but you are drinking coffee so you can stay awake and fly with 2 old,fat guys so you can get to the Hub / Sort and tap your toes from 2-6 am. Only to repeat the process so that you can get to some hotel at 9am and try to get some sleep with the maids banging around in the halls and all the doors slamming as people leave to check out.

Some of my buddies from my previous life stayed in night freight...their wives / kids / financial needs / mortgages forced them too.They are at: ABX, FDX, UPS, DHL and a handful of other outfits. They are all good enough friends to tell me the TRUTH : "I don't like my job. The money is great."

On the other hand here's a good example you might learn from:

My buddy was an Emery DC-8 Captain. He was Senior enough to hold Postal Contract flying which afforded him the luxury of mostly day flying. However, there were many times he had to fly the regular Night Hub. He was making about $140-150,000 / yr.

All I ever heard from him was how he hated the thought of going to work most of the time. Finally, I told him.."Shut up. YOU are the one who has flown for three freight airlines, why do you keep doing something you don't like?"

He quit and went to work for Spirit as a $30,000/yr DC-9 FO.

He has never been happier. And, he certainly looks better due to having lost 30 pounds and getting to sleep on the "right side of the clock".

IMHO:

"Night Freight = Right side of the pay scale. Wrong side of the airport. Wrong side of the clock."

And remember...Two "wrongs" never make a "right".


YKW

 

[SWA/FO]

at 10pm they are stumbling out and ready for A) the Room Party with the FA's, B) Letterman / Leno, or C) rubbing one out if the Room Party doesn't "work out".

amen!

 

[canyonblue]

Though my buds at Southwest have mentioned that there are more than a few of the unpleasant "Colonel" types floating around there too...

But they make great chicken! :blush:

 

[Oh-ryan]

But they make great chicken! :blush:

Well, it's a well known fact, Sonny Jim, that there's a secret society of the five wealthiest people in the world, known as The Pentavirate, who run everything in the world, including the newspapers, and meet tri-annually at a secret country mansion in Colorado, known as The Meadows. The Pentavirate is comprised of The Queen, The Vatican, The Gettys, The Rothschilds, AND Colonel Sanders before he went t!ts up. Oh, I hated the Colonel with is wee beady eyes, and that smug look on his face. "Oh, you're gonna buy my chicken! Ohhhhh!"

 

[bustinmins]

If you want to work hard for a living - go to SWA. If not, then head to Memphis my friend!

 

[SWA/FO]

But they make great chicken! :blush:

awesome baby!!!

 

[bustinmins]

If you decide to come to SW then welcome aboard brother! If you go to FedEx then Fukc Off!

Gup

Now that's the team spirit we've all come to know and love here on Flightinfo.com

Enjoy hauling that Jepp bag on your seven legs today! For me, two legs in three days is just too much to handle...I think I'll just head to the bar.

 

[walden]

Exaggeration noted. Seven legs is a bit of a stretch, and going to the bar while flying hub turns is even more of a stretch. Go where you want to go, and if you can't do that then go where you're hired.

 

[SWA/FO]

Enjoy hauling that Jepp bag on your seven legs today! For me, two legs in three days is just too much to handle...I think I'll just head to the bar.

You failed to mention the 4-5 hour sort inbetween your legs. Enjoy the sort. Nothing like a 40+ hour layover away from your Family. You like wasting time? Time for a nap.

 

[Phaedrus]

SWAFo: Time away from your family is time away from your family. Doesn't matter if you're on a 40 hour layover in Paris or doing multiple legs/day domestic. The vacation at FedEx is the best in the industry, and I highly doubt that comparably tenured crewmembers at SWA have more time off/month than those at FedEx.
Again, not every crewmember at FedEx hub turns and not every (if any) crews at SWA do 7 leg days.
You like wasting time? Keep posting the "grass is greener" stuff that each side is posting here.

 

[SWA/FO]

SWAFo: Time away from your family is time away from your family. Doesn't matter if you're on a 40 hour layover in Paris or doing multiple legs/day domestic. The vacation at FedEx is the best in the industry, and I highly doubt that comparably tenured crewmembers at SWA have more time off/month than those at FedEx.
Again, not every crewmember at FedEx hub turns and not every (if any) crews at SWA do 7 leg days.
You like wasting time? Keep posting the "grass is greener" stuff that each side is posting here.

I guess your answer to the question is: Yes, I like wasting time. 40 hour layover was the satement. My 15 hour and 12 hour layovers look a little shorter then 40.


When was the last time you saw green grass anyway, usually at night its more of a blackish color.

The vacation at FedEx is the best in the industry, and I highly doubt that comparably tenured crewmembers at SWA have more time off/month than those at FedEx.

You sure about this? What, did your "unit" buddy tell you this? Source? How old do you feel would be my next question?

 

[puddlejumper101]

I don't even see what the fuss is. FedEx and SWA are like apples and oranges. The only thing in common is that they are both fruit. Nothing in life is perfect but I would be ecstatic with either one. It kills me when I see people complain about FedEx or SWA...they are probably the most soughtafter companies in the industry...the guys at FedEx for the most part love it there...the guys at SWA for the most part love it there. The only thing that tells me is both are AWESOME...so let's move on and be grateful for being at either one...I must also include UPS...and maybe even CAL...for the guys there that just got hired it's their dream job. Life is what you make of it...you can make S#!% out of anything no matter how good it is.

 

[Sluggo_63]

I guess your answer to the question is: Yes, I like wasting time. 40 hour layover was the satement. My 15 hour and 12 hour layovers look a little shorter then 40.


When was the last time you saw green grass anyway, usually at night its more of a blackish color.



You sure about this? What, did your "unit" buddy tell you this? Source? How old do you feel would be my next question?

SWA/FO... usually I back you up (or at least I see your point on this board), but I have to call you to task on this issue. I'm at FedEx, and I have plenty of buddies at SWA. They both have good and bad points, and to paint with such a broad brush is disingenuous, at best.

We (FedEx and SWA) both get similar days off per month. You guys may average an extra .5 day off per month if you don't pick up extra, or are JA'd. If we're both gone from home 14 days per month, who cares what you're doing. You may enjoy flying on each of those 14 days. Some may enjoy walking the streets of Paris (or in my case, Burlington, VT). Fourteen days away is 14 days away, no matter how you spend it.

FedEx does offer some advantages to the commuting pilot, with the abundance of front and back-end deadheads. For example this month, I have a week long pairing that on paper goes from Sunday to Saturday. But this trip starts and ends with a deadhead to/from Newark. I live an hour away from EWR. So that time on paper that I'm commuting to and from Memphis, I'm at home with my family. That Sunday to Saturday trip is actually an Monday night to Friday night trip. That's an extra 2 days at home that doesn't even appear on my calendar. Also, those 40 hours layovers are nice when they're in your home town, and many people bid their equipment based on the d/h's and weekend layovers that go to their city.

Granted, the first night of a hub-turn week sucks. Then you adapt. It's fine for me. May not be for someone else.

As far as vacation, I do believe that we have the best in the system, and I'm sure that's up for debate. This comes from our ability to stretch and slide our vacation. If we're junior and our line has days off on the week where our vacation falls, we don't lose that vacation. We can just stretch our vacation forwards and backwards to knock out trips outside our week. From what I understand, you guys can't do that. I may be wrong.

You'll never find me saying that SWA sucks for this reason or that reason. My buds there say there are some negatives. Only a fool would say that where they work has no downside. They are happy there. I am happy at FedEx. Can we just leave it at that?

 

[capt. megadeth]

You failed to mention the 4-5 hour sort inbetween your legs. Enjoy the sort. Nothing like a 40+ hour layover away from your Family. You like wasting time? Time for a nap.

Yeah, being able to take a nap (or chat with your buddies if you are up for it) during the sort really sucks.

So does the 12 days off in a row I have in December with Christmas right in the middle of it. Really sucks.

You know what else really sucks? The fact that I am working 9 days in January flying only 2 legs a night. That really really sucks.

Life's rough.

 

[Sluggo_63]

Yeah, being able to take a nap (or chat with your buddies if you are up for it) during the sort really sucks.

So does the 12 days off in a row I have in December with Christmas right in the middle of it. Really sucks.

You know what else really sucks? The fact that I am working 9 days in January flying only 2 legs a night. That really really sucks.

Life's rough.

Sounds like my schedule. I get home the afternoon of the 23rd, and have off all the way until the 31st. Hopefully I'll get a line with the first week of January off, which should give me about 14-15 days off in a row to spend with the wife and kids while they're off from school.

 

[jtmpilot]

capt megadeth, whats your senority # at fedex?? you sound hot!! maybe we can change this whole online forum to a dating site, wanna have a beer sometime when were both in MEM?

 

[Phaedrus]

SWAfo: Attempting to discuss anything with you is akin to teaching a monkey to sculpt. Do you happen to commute from Jonestown, Guyana?

 

[Jolly Roger]

SWAfo: Attempting to discuss anything with you is akin to teaching a monkey to sculpt. Do you happen to commute from Jonestown, Guyana?

Hey, some of the best sculptors I have known were monkeys. They are excellent craftsmen, and work twice as fast with those prehensile feet and tails. I'm not sure how difficult their course of study was, but I admit they must have had a very patient instructor.

I do remember back in college hearing they were a bit messier than the usual student, and required more extensive cleanup after class; I seem to remember that on more than one occasion the nude model was pelted with feces. The feminist crowd was particularly offended.
http://www.abcgallery.com/W/watteau/watteau10.html

 

[bustinmins]

A guy in my new hire class was at SWA for about 2 years, and came to FedEx. I don't know all the circumstances, but that was his choice.

Did you get my $30 bucks for those copies?