Southwest 300 / 500 question

[CaptainKiwi]

try 20K vs 24K

 

[DX Jake]

try 20K vs 24K

my bad, fat-fingered, 20k

 

[wood pecker]

Thank you JD, I got your message. Once all of our transition bids close and I get an idea of a class date I will follow up. Last I heard is 717 guys will be a few months away to a year depending on what happens.

Thanks again for the email.

 

[Lear70]

As of current plans, 717 pilots will not be transitioning next year. This comes directly from Mark Sutcliffe, manager AirTran Crew Planning. We just got the most updated class dates and drops on a monthly basis for next year's planning purposes, they're all 737 pilots.

Towards the end of the year, some of the 737 pilots that come out of MCO and MKE as those bases are closed down who bid to the 717 will be training on the 717 ON THE AIRTRAN SIDE OF THE HOUSE. That will, in turn, free up some 717 pilots to transition to Southwest 737 late next year or early 2013 when they start pulling from ATL again.

That said, there still is no plan for 717 aircraft moving to Southwest until Jan 2013.

 

[dicko]

Towards the end of the year, some of the 737 pilots that come out of MCO and MKE as those bases are closed down who bid to the 717 will be training on the 717 ON THE AIRTRAN SIDE OF THE HOUSE. That will, in turn, free up some 717 pilots to transition to Southwest 737 late next year or early 2013 when they start pulling from ATL again..

So the 737 to 717 transitions will not respect seniority ?
Eg: ATL 737 bidding 717, will transfer to ATran 717 after a junior MKE 737 will transfer to ATran 717.

Did that make sense ?

 

[Lear70]

So the 737 to 717 transitions will not respect seniority ?

Within base and equipment? Yes. System-wide? No.

Eg: ATL 737 bidding 717, will transfer to ATran 717 after a junior MKE 737 will transfer to ATran 717.

Did that make sense ?

In all likelihood, yes. When they pull down MKE 737's, if those 737 CA's bid to 717 CA, they would either have to force the MKE 737 CA's back to 737 CA ATL (which isn't one of the available bid choices) or put the MKE 737 CA's into the 717 training pipeline ahead of their more junior ATL counterparts.

That part isn't set in stone yet, still some tweaking to do (the transition committee is meeting this week), but why would a transitioning 737 to 717 pilot care when they go to training on the AirTran side? If I were going to have to transition aircraft like that, I'd probably choose to stay on my current equipment as long as possible unless the bidding position in the different equipment (717) was that much drastically better...?

Trying to understand the issue so I can forward it to the transition committee so they can decide if it's something we should address. We understand people unhappy about out-of-seniority transfers to SWA because of the large pay differential for F/O's, even though there's not much we can do about it, but not so sure about why transfers on the AAI side of the fence are as large of an issue...?

 

[dicko]

That part isn't set in stone yet, still some tweaking to do (the transition committee is meeting this week), but why would a transitioning 737 to 717 pilot care when they go to training on the AirTran side? If I were going to have to transition aircraft like that, I'd probably choose to stay on my current equipment as long as possible unless the bidding position in the different equipment (717) was that much drastically better...?

Trying to understand the issue so I can forward it to the transition committee so they can decide if it's something we should address. We understand people unhappy about out-of-seniority transfers to SWA because of the large pay differential for F/O's, even though there's not much we can do about it, but not so sure about why transfers on the AAI side of the fence are as large of an issue...?

An excellent question;

There are CA's on the 737 that would be junior lineholders on the 717. On the 737 they are senior RSV (PARLC etc.) They stayed on the 737 during the old contract because a 'build up line' was a pretty good deal. The new contract has destroyed any ability to make money on any RSV line, including the PARLC. Thank you PCL, I told you so Now they want to exercise their seniority and hold a line on the 717. This is the first opportunity for them to move to the 717 since the world ended last year.

Since this is a bid. It should be done in seniority.



- Apologies for the thread hi jack. I like all of those funny round thingies that look like little watches on the 737-300 instrument panel. Very retro.
(Added to make this post relevant to the thread title)

 

[DesertDuck]

Another 300 retired today. 162 300s left on property. One more goes next Monday.

 

[wood pecker]

Lear, is there any idea of how many pilots will bypass training? Sounds like there needs to be a new poll on the myseniority.com site. Thanks for the update.

 

[Lear70]

Dicko, it's a good point. I'll pass it along.

WP, I don't know. It probably WOULD be good to put that on Jamie's website, as everyone will have different ideas of how/when they want to go over and why.