Leave SWA for Fed Ex

[HOUMAN]

Choosing between the two is a matter of what do you really want to do. FedEx would be an excellent choice considering their recent contract, work rules and growth. If you are a family man then move to Collierville (sp?), bid PM reserve and plan on spending lots of time with the kids. You will be paid well, live in a family friendly town and have lots of time off. If you don't want to live in the Memphis area then commuting shouldn't be too hard (in fact easier than SWA), but you won't have as many days off. Additionally, FedEx is “manned” better than SWA, so if you are in the military, taking days of for military leave is much easier (i.e. you don’t get a phone call from the chief pilot querying you on the aspects of your military duty). It’s not that SWA Chiefs are Nazis about it, it is just that SWA traditionally runs its business in a lean manner, therefore it doesn’t have a lot of personnel wiggle room.
At the current time, moving boxes around seems like a very stable, well paying lifestyle. It is hard to judge what the future holds ,though, as the "World Average" pay for a freight wide body Capt. is somewhere around 80K a year (yes I know that FedEx Capts will get around 265K per hour, but that is not the point). All I can say is the "World is Flat" and you must take that into consideration.
Life at SWA is not all that bad (after working here for 2.5 years I am getting a pretty good idea). I live in domicile and work with the National Guard on the side. Since I only live 15 minutes from the airport (in a nice town), I am able to drop most of my 3 day trips (I don't do 4 days) and pick up extra fly turns. They end up being broken lines and usually have 3 legs with one of them being a dead head. The pay is around 7 - 10 units of pay per day. So, on the average I end up with 110-120 units of pay per month and am only gone 6 nights from home. I looked back on my schedule for the past couple of months and noted that I only average around 3 legs per day. So at 86 bucks a pay unit * 115 units and a little money from the Guard each month I am able to pay my bills.
Job security at SWA..... well in this post 9/11 world you never know when someone is going to mix a few liquids together and ruin it for everyone. Also, the passenger airlines are usually the first industry to suffer from an economic down turn and the last to recover. Plus, this industry cannot just tack a fuel surcharge on the ticket as easy as FedEx does. Bottom line, there isn't much security at all, even at SWA. But working here is worth the risk, for me.

One more thing.. some final things to remember: At SWA you will usually spend the day working, not sitting around. So if you prefer to spend your time away from home working, then SWA is the logical choice. On the other hand, if you enjoy nice hotel layovers with lots and lots of time off during your trips, then FedEx would be a better fit.

Hope this helps with your decision. Good luck and I hope everything works out.

 

[seefive]

Come on guys. Those at FedEx and SWA are both extremely lucky right now. Both are good places to work. I had a choice to make regarding where to work. It was difficult and I considered myself blessed with the choice. I chose FedEx. I'm very happy with the choice but think I would've been just as happy at SWA. The things that swayed me were pension, pay, and job security. I still think FedEx is better for those things but pay at SWA has obviously risen which is great. Flying nights is difficult but you can fly daytime if you want. I choose nights because i commute and it is unbelievably easy to commute with paid DHs to your city pairs. Nights are also more efficient for pay if you don't live in memphis. Simply put, more days off by flying nights. Good luck.

 

[AlbieF15]

HOUMAN...stop with the logical, informative posts man... This IS flightinfo, right?

 

[satpak77]

Just curious

What airline are you at now?



Lowpayisgreat vbmenu_register("postmenu_1125627", true);
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[BVT94]

Choosing between the two is a matter of what do you really want to do. FedEx would be an excellent choice considering their recent contract, work rules and growth. If you are a family man then move to Collierville (sp?), bid PM reserve and plan on spending lots of time with the kids. You will be paid well, live in a family friendly town and have lots of time off. If you don't want to live in the Memphis area then commuting shouldn't be too hard (in fact easier than SWA), but you won't have as many days off. Additionally, FedEx is “manned” better than SWA, so if you are in the military, taking days of for military leave is much easier (i.e. you don’t get a phone call from the chief pilot querying you on the aspects of your military duty). It’s not that SWA Chiefs are Nazis about it, it is just that SWA traditionally runs its business in a lean manner, therefore it doesn’t have a lot of personnel wiggle room.
At the current time, moving boxes around seems like a very stable, well paying lifestyle. It is hard to judge what the future holds ,though, as the "World Average" pay for a freight wide body Capt. is somewhere around 80K a year (yes I know that FedEx Capts will get around 265K per hour, but that is not the point). All I can say is the "World is Flat" and you must take that into consideration.
Life at SWA is not all that bad (after working here for 2.5 years I am getting a pretty good idea). I live in domicile and work with the National Guard on the side. Since I only live 15 minutes from the airport (in a nice town), I am able to drop most of my 3 day trips (I don't do 4 days) and pick up extra fly turns.

How do you give away your 3 days? I've only managed to give away one 3 day in 8 years.

 

[Lowpayisgreat]

You bet

I do have a offer and a sponser for the next meet and greet. So to all the guys who gave their point of views in a prof. manner, Thanks. For all the **************************************** that are a bunch of little school girls. Kiss my ass. Get a life, stop spending every minute of your life on the board and try to get laid. It funny how the guys who have flown the least and not proven themselves have the biggest mouths. For the guys from both companies that talked about how they liked each company, good on ya.

 

[gutshotdraw]

Isn't it interesting that when a customer wants to ship a package to Aunt Mabel and the agent says "that'll be $150" the customer doesn't blink. But when they want to go VISIT Aunt Mabel and the agent says "that'll be $150" they lose their minds and complain about how expensive air travel is.

The point is, there continues to be tremendous downward pressure on airline pricing by American consumers. I don't see that same downward price pressure in the express freight business.

Southwest is a great airline but I would run, not walk, to Memphis.

 

[Jolly Roger]

How do you give away your 3 days? I've only managed to give away one 3 day in 8 years.

Leave him alone, he's on a roll.... although he probably mil drops the three day trips, good on em.

 

[Purpled]

Read the question... if it were reversed, leave FEDEX for SWA, then responses would be different.

http://forums.flightinfo.com/showthread.php?t=81195&highlight=fedex+swa

See for yourself(assuming my link works). Lots of FI 'garbage', but nobody from FDX saying, 'F-U, if you aren't sure that you want to work here.'

Search for 'SWA pilot turns down fedex', if the link is bad.

 

[Falconjet]

Well I'll chime in again with my tired old story. One of my sponsors at FedEx left SW after a few months to come here about 10 years ago. He is now holding Bus Captain. His words when asked why he left: "less work, more pay" in a nutshell.

My story: hired by FedEx in Aug 02, on reserve in the back of the Boeing, 35 from the bottom of the entire seniority list when SW called with a class date in Apr 04 (typed and pooled in Mar 02). Tough call for me, but having moved to Mempho (thankfully as long as I was stuck, yes stuck, on reserve) and being pretty content with my future at FedEx, I decided to stay put.

It was an agonizing decision, but for me it was the right choice. Interesting that nobody at FedEx suggested that I should "just go if you are asking the question" when I started similar threads back then.

When (if) people ask me my opinion now I can only offer my story up as the best endorsement of FedEx that I can give. Nothing against SW, I admire the company and the way they treated me, and I will always wonder how it would have been.

Both are great companies, you've received a lot of good (and some not so good) feedback, but you must make the decision based on what is best for you and your family. Remember, it is just business, make the best decision you can and make the best of it down the road.

Good luck and let us know what you end up doing.

FJ