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?

 

[MLBWINGBORN]

Man..Whew!!

Just thinking about the commute from BWI to Oak makes my butt hurt..
Two words...All day!!

If you have less than four days off..Just stay out there..Dont bother..

If they switch you to an PM RAP during your reserve block forget about getting home on your last day...

Sitting on the jumpseat from OAK to PHX to BWI was something i looked forward to at least 50% of the time..

Two new hires quit last year due to not being able to make it home from OAK back to the east coast..

To be honest..

If i had to do a year in OAK while living in RIC..Im not sure i would still be here..

Mike

 

[Phil O'Sopher]

OAK to East Coast Commute

It's true that this commute is not for the faint of heart. I did it for two months and used to commute off line on the redeyes. AA to JFK, Delta to ATL (both non-stops) and SWA to LAS & connect AWA redeye to BWI were the ones that I used (all out of OAK). There were other flights available but I never had any problem getting on these and was always treated well. How easy it is depends on where you are going. You usually won't be in OAK long anyways and I did have one 3-day off block during which I just rented a car and cruised the Pacific Coast Highway. Bottom line-it's tough, but it can be done and was a small price to pay.

 

[CoopDog]

SFO?

Any SWA east coast-to-OAK commuters ever go in to or out of SFO? (as a back-up). Just curious since I could do a one leg hop out of CLT to SFO as a jumpseater on USAirways as an option.

Anyone know what a cab ride across the bay would run? Or do they have a SFO-OAK ground shuttle? Seems like there might be plenty of UAL crash pads in the SFO area that would be cheaper than spending $50 a night in a hotel near the OAK airport.

A SWA buddy of mine used to commute from GSO to ORD on UAL when he was based in MDW, and said if you can knock it down to one leg and a little ground trans, it sure beats the 2 (or 3) leg commutes.

Any thoughts here guys? I'm already having bad dreams about it, and I'm probably look'n at another 6-8 months getting out of this pool.

 

[English]

I did the cab ride last week from SFO to OAK. Took 45 minutes and cost $75.

My original question was misinterpreted, I think. Do reserves who live on the West Coast tend to commute daily to OAK, or just get a hotel room for the block of days on reserve?

 

[CoopDog]

SFO to OAK for 5 bucks

I was just checking out the OAK pilot crew base web-site and found out about BART with service from SFO to OAK.

BART takes 50 minutes from SFO to OAK, with 16 stops, and costs just $5.25 one-way. Looks like the Disney monorail from their web-site, www.bart.gov

Apparantly, the SFO station just recently opened up. Good news for SWA OAK commuters.

 

[skirt]

Coop,

A bunch of our guys (UAL) have to sit reserve and cover all three airports OAK/SJC/SFO. Most commuters have a car and stay in crashpads in Burlingame (south of SFO) for about $150 a month. There is a van service called "Bayporter" that used to run hourly service from SFO to OAK and back for $14. A cab ride is $30. These prices might be a bit out dated.

As of a week ago there is BART service to/from SFO (subway). It is not a direct ride from SFO to OAK, but it can be done. I do not know the fare, my guess would be $6.

I do not know of any UAL crashpads in OAK area. Anyplace that would have low enough rent for a crashpad would not be a place you would want to live. There is an area of nice apartments in Dublin, about 20 minutes east of OAK, that a bunch of guys could split into a crashpad. My husband is a firefighter in Dublin, so I know the area fairly well. There is a BART station in Dublin, two stops to OAK. The BART does not run directly to OAK airport, but there is a BART bus that goes from the station to the airport. Let me know if you want me to get you apartment complex phone numbers.

Skirt

 

[LearAv8r]

I commuted from FLL to OAK and took red eyes and went home between trips last month. Had a three on and three off schedule. Spent about a day and a half at home and then headed out to the wet coast. JB was great and while the commute was long I was able to get home at 5:45am and had almost two days at home really.

The idea of going from SFO to OAK was not really an option for me even though there are more flight out of SFO. Mainly because the BART system. I think there was a bus ride involved and a train ride and then another bus ride or something like that. I read an article about how the BART just recently opened up a direct link to the OAK and SFO airports or something like that.

With the way that the loads were I found it hard to jumpseat off line. I didn't want to go to SFO and hope for a flight and then not get a seat because they were full. There are two hotels in OAK. the Days Inn and the Ramada. Both in the same area, kind of not safe. The rates were like 45 a night out the door. I have hear of some guys that were using hotels.com and getting 35 a night at three stars hotels.

If in a jam there is always the crew room for a few hours....coming east coast to west coast was a piece of cake. going east was hard. I know that JB has some flights out of JFK that might help. They were real nice and helpful.....not to mention the Terra Blues!!

either way the commute gets old after a while and if you are at the end of the seniority list with no new classes behind you I can see where some guys just stay out there. There are a lot of cool places to go and lots of things to do out in CA.

good luck and hang in there eventually you will get to where you want to go.....

I know of someguys that did the commute from the east to west for over a year.....hats off to those guys.....

Lear-

 

[Snoopy58]

English,

I don't think I've ever heard of anybody commuting each day to sit reserve, probably because the time frame is too long. If you have an AM RAP (reserve availability period), you have to be able to make a checkin for the first flight of the day, which would require getting into the airport before the first SWA flight lands. If you have a PM RAP, you'll be on call at least long enough to crew the last scheduled departure, and generally for a few hours beyond that (so you'd be legal to fly that last flight even if it's running late); even if the schedulers cut you loose to jumpseat home on that last flight, it would have to be going to YOUR home.

The actual RAP's are posted times, and they vary somewhat, but they're something like 0400-1900 for an AM RAP and 1100-0200 for a PM RAP. What that means is that your phone can ring at 0400 or 1100, you are at the airport checking in 2 hours later, and pushing back an hour after that. Or sooner, if things get crunched. But, in this scenario, you'd be checking in at 0600, which is earlier than most SWA flights depart, and a good bit earlier than they start landing.

You CAN generally commute in the same day for a PM RAP, or home the last day of an AM RAP (unless your name is Mike, that is).


BTW, I edited the class date in the first post of this thread -- the fine pilot who is currently holding up the entire totem pole of BWI F/O's pointed out that their class began 4/21, not on 5/2 as is showing in Maestro. Thanks!

Snoopy

 

[OakRBust]

That west coast east coast thing really is tough but well worth it.
I was commuting from Oak to DTW for two+ months. I went to LAS and took NWA or AWA redeyes most of the time.

Once I did go to sfo. It was really easy. Take Air Bart to the OAK Colliseum. I think it was 1.25 or 1.50. Then you take the Bart to SFO. (Around 5.00 bucks) Total trip time is probably about an hour. I guess it could be a little more of you just miss a departure. I asked the information booth about a cab ride and was told it is about 75.00 Bucks.

One thing to be said.... The people in OAK were awesome. I had a lot of freaking fun there in those two plus months. I aint gonna miss the commute, but I am gonna miss the folks!


I hope MDW is 1/2 as much fun!!!


Oak

 

[w8n4swa]

OAK lodging...

Hello All,

I concur with Mike about staying in OAK with less than 4 days off...east coast commuting is exhausting.

My sim partner found a deal at the Holiday Inn for those needing a place to stay in OAK while on reserve. $1500/month for a crash pad split by 8 class mates...that's less than $200 /month... and free transportation to the airport. With our schedules on different times, I'd expect we'll have 2 or 3 of us, at most, staying overnight...2 double beds and a roller bed included. Cheaper than hoteling it alone and you can keep your stuff in the room without checking out every time.

Good luck to our fellow poolies....continue with the backstroke....SWA is well worth W8N4!!