Latest Vacancy Bid at SWA, & other news

[Snoopy58]

The vacancy awards for August just came out, and I figured that the results might be of interest to some here. What I list below are the most JUNIOR F/O moving in to each base. Realize that the relative rank of bases at the very lowest seniority level may not reflect one's relative seniority when you're further up the totem pole, and that these things can change with time.

No surprise, DAL is the most senior, by a long shot, and OAK is the most junior. All 20 of the latest class got OAK to start, and everyone from the previous class is still there, as best I can tell.

The junior F/O in ___ was hired in ___ and has about ___ F/O's junior to him/her in the system:

DAL 7/01 497
HOU 1/03 130
MCO 2/03 123
MDW 4/21/03 63
BWI 4/21/03 57
PHX 4/21/03 45
OAK 5/26/03 0 <congrats!>

Of note. the bottom spot in MDW, BWI, and PHX are all held by members of the late April class. Some of the more junior people in that class are still in OAK in August, it appears. I can't tell if that's by choice (doubt it) or due to limited slots in PHX/BWI/MDW (my guess).

For the future, this suggests that it will take at least two but probably no more than 3 classes behind you to get you out of OAK, if that is your preference, depending on your seniority (age) within your class. (For instance, the bottom F/O in PHX has some classmates from his class, all of the first May class, and all of the second May class behind him.)

Hope that is useful info for some good folks out there. Everybody at SWA is looking forward to having all the poolies on board with us!

cheers,

Snoopy

Edited to correct the "5/2/03" class to its actual start date of 4/21.

 

[CoopDog]

"Escape from Oakland"

For the future, this suggests that it will take at least two but probably no more than 3 classes behind you to get you out of OAK, if that is your preference, depending on your seniority (age) within your class.

Kind of sounds like the plot for a good new Kurt Russell flick.

But hey, I'd love to be an extra there any day of the week, at least until I could get a supporting role in BWI, or better yet, MCO.

As always Snoop, info on SWA is more than welcome. Keep those cards and letters coming. Thanks for taking the time to write.

 

[Boeing4Me]

Great post!

That's interesting and informative to those of us already at SWA as well as the dog paddlers. Keep in mind, though, it's only a snapshot based on the Aug (and last couple months) vacancy bids. Two years ago a new hire could go to OAK, MDW, BWI in their first month and PHX a month or two later. One year ago, BWI was impossible and guys waited a year to move there from MDW, OAK, or PHX. Again - a great post, but construction at MDW, HOU, BWI, or ?????? could change the results in a heartbeat.

Also of interest in the Sep vacancies is a draw down of a dozen or so captains as the vacation season ends.

B4Me

 

[English]

CAn someone shed some light on this for me...why does everyone want to get out of OAK? Are there bad trips there? Not commutable or ??

 

[schmooze]

What's the status on SWA's new LAS base? Anyone heard anything?

 

[SWA/FO]

OAK = no crash pads. Instead of paying 155/mo in MDW you would pay at a minimum 60 bucks a night. 4 nights = 240. Still not bad, but just think if you were on reserve 14 days with no flying? 840.00 ouch...plus,its expensive to live there.

 

[AJWick]

And............for most east coast guys the commute realllllly would suck.

aj

 

[Snoopy58]

LAS Base -- the Rumor That Would Not Die. (Sequel to Coop's Kurt Russel movie) I ask about that rumor from time to time when I go through LAS, and nobody there has yet to lend it much support. I think it was under serious investigation for a while, but in the current climate ($ conservation) it's been moved to the back burner. Opening a new crew base, like a new city, costs some $ up front. Right now, SWA is more in a mode of "connecting the (existing) dots" & increasing the numbers of flight between existing cities, since that generates revenue with the jets & doesn't require a big up-front expenditure.

At some point, I think we will start to see new cities & a new crew base; the cities where a lot of jets RON are the most obvious candidates, since the hotel bills there are pretty big, and that's a tremendous factor for LAS as a base. But I don't hear any word that it'll happen anytime real soon.

Snoopy

 

[MLBWINGBORN]

Just to add on to what has been said..

Had the guy with the hotel commitee the other day on the jump seat..
The bottom line is that we are averaging around 250 hotel rooms in Vegas per night and they are becoming less and less inclined to give us a good deal on the rates..

The word is that the cost of the rooms has very quickly risen and is nearing the point that making LAS a base would be far cheaper in the short/long term..

This plus the large number of RONs is making LAS the hands down favorite next base in the rumor mill..

Mike

 

[English]

Do west coast reserves tend to commute daily to back and forth to OAK, or still go with hotel rooms?