Southwest Training

[SWA Bubba]

LOL. You made my point (I'm not annoyed with you, just the union and the company for not being very informative about the transition process). I just can't believe that they aren't more proactive with communication on the transition. It has been a black hole, until you get to DAL. Just seems like they could send everyone's welcome packet now. Even get some of the paperwork done. But like MJ said. They just treat it like new hire training. Even though the AT pay checks have said SWA for over a year. Here is the pay routine;

Starting class at the beginning of the month seems to work best for them from a payroll standpoint. Though pretty soon that's gonna have to change. Your first 2 pay checks while on SWA property will come from AT (AT rates). The big check and then your base salary, that's month number one.

I was also paid 173.20 by SWA on the 19th of month 1. No idea why? Travel pay? Carry in from last trip at AT? Doesn't say what it is for on my pay stub (says "other").

Month 2 in training you get paid Southwest rates (if your an AT FO you are thinking finally!). Your new pay dates are the 5th and 20th. Month 2 on the 5th you will get what they call the crew advance. $ 6300 for a 12 year FO. Take home was 4518.40 after taxes and elected deductions. Next comes the big check on the 20th. I was paid 41.67 TFP or 5535.44 and 1496.40 in per diem. Take home was $5027.84.

Month 3 you should see to much easier to read pay stubs. You will see the advance on the 5th (3,976.15 take home, less because 401k started) and 89 TFP clearly marked training on the 20th (4631.79 take home, again 401k deduction). They pay you the full 89 TFP on the 20th and then subtract the advance from the 5th. Why do they do it this way? That is one of life's mysteries. After month 3 it's game on. Fly your tail off.

Explaining the 401K is a whole other thread. Also a lot of things (like viewing the pay stubs on SWA life) are not windows 8 friendly. Good luck. I hope this is useful. Feel free to post this on the AT forum if you think it would help.

* apologies to anyone who finds posting earnings crass. But quality information to negotiate a 3 month period of flux is not being provided internally.

In case Humveedriver's explanation wasn't crystal clear )), here's how payroll looks at it: As a rule, employees are paid in arrears, i.e. paid for the work they actually completed in the previous month. However, on the 5th of the month, you're paid an advance on this. So On October 5th, you're paid an advance on October's pay. This advance gross is calculated as 1/2 of the sum of your specific payrate x 95 tfp (the company-defined "average" month), rounded to the nearest $100. The balance of October's pay isn't paid to you until the 20th of the next month, i.e. November 20. That payday gross is calculated as your payrate x the actual amount you worked in all of October, plus perdiem, and less the advance they gave you on 5 Oct.

Make sense yet? The advance is always 1/2 of 95 tfp, so if you work a buttload more in a given month (say you're one of those 150 tfp/month guys), then you get an enormous check on the following month's 20th payday. The 5th payday is always the same gross (for a given payrate, that is), and the 20th payday can vary widely depending on how much you actually work.

If you desire, you can skip the advance, and just get all of your month's pay on the 20th of the following month. Or, if you work less than 47.5 tfp in a month, I think they unilaterally quit giving you an advance so you don't end up owing the company money on the next 20th when they figure out that you've earned less than they already advanced you.

I have no idea how other airlines' payroll works (incl AirTran), but this is how Southwest has always done it. I suspect this comes from 1971 when they started, and used an abacus, somebody's fingers and toes, and sticky notes to calculate pay, and that took a while to figure out. It actually works fine, and is perfectly predictable once you understand it. If they changed it now, I'm sure lots of people (especially those who live, or think they live, payday-to-payday) would bitch and moan about the company screwing up their household finances. So, I'm sure it will never change. As they say, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Hope this helps, good luck, have fun in Dallas, and welcome to the dark side.

Bubba

 

[Newjetjockey]

What transportation options are there for while you're in training. I'm not looking forward to being stuck in Dallas for 60 days without being able to get around town. I'm also not looking forward to driving my car out there. Crappy situation either way. Are people getting rentals while out there?

 

[Ty Webb]

Not the dark side, Bubba, just the purple side.

Ours is similar, except less generous to FO's and calculated on a customized Atari.

 

[SWA Bubba]

Not the dark side, Bubba, just the purple side.

Well, purple ("blurple," actually) IS darker than AirTran's white, green and blue. So, technically, my veracity is still intact.

By the way, someone should have told AirTran's management long ago that blue and green clash when paired together. Geez, that's Matching Colors 101....

Or at least, so I've been told. :0

Bubba

 

[jetvison]

Thanks for the info. Actually very similar to how AirTran does it except our big check is on the 10th and the advance on the 25th. Definately driving a car out though. 60 days is too long to sit in the hotel.

 

[ROSWELL41]

They don't provide a rental car for you when you're there that long?

 

[humveedriver]

I drove from DFW to ATL during initial and upgrade at AT. I thought it was worth it. You can can cab it to lower Greenville or uptown dallas which is similar to buck head or mid town ATL. If you are not going home on weekends, the car would be nice. I'm prob not the guy to talk to about time away from home. My other job has taken care of that.

 

[StopNTSing]

They don't provide a rental car for you when you're there that long?

You're kidding, right?

 

[scoreboardII]

Of course he is, nobody gets a rental, anywhere.

 

[tankerhead]

What is the physical relationship between the airport, hotel, and training center with regard to transportation to/from class and getting out of town for the weekend?