New Southwest Domicile - ATL

[gobyebye]

In other words the AirTran pilots brought ALL the ATL flying to the table but now it's being divided among the whole list?

Goes both ways. Southwest brought all the Denver flying and a lot of guys from the airtran side willingly bid that base because they live there or near there.

 

[Max Powers]

Goes both ways. Southwest brought all the Denver flying and a lot of guys from the airtran side willingly bid that base because they live there or near there.

Actually we bid DIA because there is no ATL and unless you're a senior captain at AT you will not be able to even hold ATL - that is if they even open a base. Shocking as it is SWA does not always keep their promises. Perhaps GK will do something "in lieu" of the ATL base -LMAO.

 

[Lear70]

They recently published a breakdown of the monthly domicile lines and hard line / reserve line cutoffs for each domicile for the Jan bid.

What it doesn't have is who the most senior guy/gal is on reserve in each base, not including the senior folk who deliberately bid reserve for whatever reason.

Can someone PM me that info? Trying to figure out where people will fall either line holding or on reserve in each domicile for the upcoming months of bidding over to SWA since most of our junior pilots haven't transitioned over yet to "plug the holes".

Thanks,

 

[rajflyboy]

Southwest Airlines

One big happy LUV fest now a days

 

[Ty Webb]

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[scoreboardII]

It would seem that one big advantage SW has is that all the crews fly the same planes. Would it not be possible to think outside of the box when it comes to crew basing? Do a survey to find out where most people live and where they would want to fly from. Take any SW city that has some number of RON's (5 or more, whatever) and if there is enough interest from the local crews build biddable lines from these bases. Do your RON's in cities that are not popular places to live and let people be domiciled where they want to live. For example, cut an unpopular base like OAK down to the size where enough people would want it and put the rest of the overnight crews in hotels there. Then make biddable pairings from places like TPA, BNA, STL or wherever there are locals who want to fly from home.

It seems like SW is always messing around with the size of bases anyway so why not give people more choices of where to live? It would be great for QOL, living in base is a huge perk, good for the crews and good for the company. It seems that it would at least be worth a well constructed survey and a study by some creative people with the skills to make a new system work. Where there are open minds there are always possibilities, just because something has always been done one way in this industry doesn't mean that it can't be done another way.

Sorry, but line writing occurs based on bookings tied then to aircraft flows. Then they decide the line breakup by domicile based on maintenance requirements, then they decide the line for a pilot out of that domicile, after the flow is already in stone. There is no way they would let the pilots have a say where the flows are unless we agree to PBS.

 

[General Lee]

Haha. Barely. The hypocrisy from the Gen is off the charts.

Do you fly INTL? NOT AT ALL. How about HAWAII? NOPE. DL flew L1011s to London Gatwick and Frankfurt (including DFW to FRA) prior to Pan Am. Afterwards, they set up a FRA hub, and flew MD11s from LAX, CVG, and ATL, and also flew intra Europe with 727s and A310s.

All this from a guy (RED), who will be lost going to San Juan. If he goes to Key West, he may just follow the islands or the highway. Good luck Red, you're gonna need it. Maybe LBB is for you.


Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[General Lee]

Delta didn't do much international at all before buying Pan Am. What, one or two European cities and a few Caribbean destinations. The Pan Am guys taught you regional guys how to do it.

Beside, international flying sucks. Always has, and always will.

INTL sucks? No, you couldn't handle it. It is the best flying around. Long legs, extra crew, sleep, good meals, nice hotels, better pay. You must not have had ANY of those. Have fun in OMA, STL, BNA, CHM, BWI, and ISP tomorrow! What a tool. You couldn't handle INTL flying. Just admit it. But, the great thing is, if someone actually doesn't like it at a legacy, they can always go back to domestic. You can't switch to INTL. Truth hurts.


Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[fam62c]

Sorry, but line writing occurs based on bookings tied then to aircraft flows. Then they decide the line breakup by domicile based on maintenance requirements, then they decide the line for a pilot out of that domicile, after the flow is already in stone. There is no way they would let the pilots have a say where the flows are unless we agree to PBS.

Certainly not easy but nothing is impossible, whenever they create a new domicile they have to adapt the system and adjust aircraft and crew flows. This would just be more, smaller crew bases or virtual bases, whatever you would want to call them. There would have to be size limit and limit to the number of bases but why couldn't SW have say, 20 smaller crew bases instead of 10 larger ones? If what you say is true they would never create a new crew base. I think it's really driven by where the planes end up each night.

Remember what I said about not having to do things one way because that's how they have always been done. The airline industry is probably the least creative industry on the planet run by the least creative people, there is very little thinking outside of the box. The people who work at airlines probably couldn't make this work because they would start with the idea that you can't do it. The people who work at Google probably could make it work because they would start with the idea that there must be a way to do it. That makes all the difference.

 

[Ky.BrownBourbn]

Unfortunately for guys that live in the ATL, there are a ton of SW guys living in the "panhandle" that refuse to leave, they are currently based in MCO and commute thru ATL to get there, I can see those people bidding ATL. That may create a little movement in MCO. The Captains bidding ATL will be interesting because there are so many guys displaced from MCO and BWI. There will be a lot of "junior Captains" there. When the Air Tran guys can finally take upgrades (2015), they should be able to get in right away because of the way SW does manning. (No Base Rights and the ebb and flow of domicile bids...If you are on the SW side of the partition you understand...Never seen domiciles fluctuate like they do here!)

Good Luck,
KBB