Southwest Window

[General Lee]

Negative. Find a job that will benefit you for your entire lifelong career.

The the lack of retirements for the next decade compared to the big 3 should mean something to potential Corndogs. The AT group sure is young overall. What is the projected upgrade time now? 15 years? If you had 5000 pilots leave in 10 years, that would be different. At DL, the junior Capt is around 9400 out of 12,000.

Also Pave, you want to look at the infighting potential within the airline. Bad attitudes during work make it WORK. Both AA and SWA may have a lot of that.



Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[T-1GUY]

Good luck. There are no crystal balls. I've worked for 4 major airlines and a Fortune 500 corporate flight department. Been furloughed from two and quit two on my own each time making the best decision I could based on the info I had at the time. Most have turned out to be wrong.

Make the best choice you can with the realization that things don't always turn out the way you think they will.

And if you're in your forties there's no time to wait to see if the prom queen will go to the dance with you. Dance with the first pretty gal that says yes and hope that it lasts until retirement.

Just my two cents.

Could I just dance with the first average looking chick, but she is incredible in bed ?

 

[poor2thecore]

The the lack of retirements for the next decade compared to the big 3 should mean something to potential Corndogs. The AT group sure is young overall. What is the projected upgrade time now? 15 years? If you had 5000 pilots leave in 10 years, that would be different. At DL, the junior Capt is around 9400 out of 12,000.

Also Pave, you want to look at the infighting potential within the airline. Bad attitudes during work make it WORK. Both AA and SWA may have a lot of that.



Bye Bye---General Lee

Upgrade at a major shouldn't really be a concern. Who gives a $hit. SWA FOs make good money and have a great QOL. Why rot away in NYC on reserve flying the 717 to Boston and Miami with your dorky hat and double-breasted straight-jacket when you can relax on 150k/yr in DEN/PHX/etc.

 

[General Lee]

Upgrade at a major shouldn't really be a concern. Who gives a $hit. SWA FOs make good money and have a great QOL. Why rot away in NYC on reserve flying the 717 to Boston and Miami with your dorky hat and double-breasted straight-jacket when you can relax on 150k/yr in DEN/PHX/etc.

Uhhhhhh, with the lack of movement at the Corny due to AT pilots getting the majority of upgrades coming up, you may not get PHX, rather OAK and commuting via BART from San Mateo. I talked to an AT 717FO who thought he was going to get OAK for a few months (after 6 years as an AT FO) after switching over, and he couldn't wait for a two leg commute from TPA...

And, any newhire at DL has a 1 year seat hold (even on that 717), but with 85 new hires per month and then 5000 retirements in the next decade, that newhire is off reserve in 2 months, flying a Widebody a year later to Paris, and then a Capt in 5 years. All the while, you are stuffing sour dough bread up your corn hole in San Mateo, hoping you can find another reason to sick out of your next day's 5 leg trip to El Paso in an old 737-300. $150K a year in OAK don't mean much. But you knew that. In your dorky Fonzi Jacket...."Ehhhaay!"


Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[FurloughedAgain]

There are two ways that movement occurs at an airline. Growth and retirements. True, retirements will be slow at SW for a long time. There are however, growth "opportunities" both domestically and near internationally (Canada, Mexico, Central America, Caribbean). Now, I'm no bean counter but my assumption is that the shareholders will press the company to increase revenue over time. They can do that by adding seats, adding airplanes, or adding new destinations. With the exception of seats, all of those will require additional staffing. Will it yield a 5 year upgrade? No. But I don't think it will be as stagnant as you are prognosticating.

The legacies, on the other hand, are already pretty tapped out on expansion. Their growth will most likely come from recapturing RJ flying (thankfully!) I suppose my point is that the situation isn't as dire at SW as you make it out to be. Delta is a good company but they can't hire ALL of us. Thankfully there are other good companies out there who continue to hire. Besides, I love ELP. Free hot breakfast. ;-)

 

[General Lee]

There are two ways that movement occurs at an airline. Growth and retirements. True, retirements will be slow at SW for a long time. There are however, growth "opportunities" both domestically and near internationally (Canada, Mexico, Central America, Caribbean). Now, I'm no bean counter but my assumption is that the shareholders will press the company to increase revenue over time. They can do that by adding seats, adding airplanes, or adding new destinations. With the exception of seats, all of those will require additional staffing. Will it yield a 5 year upgrade? No. But I don't think it will be as stagnant as you are prognosticating.

The legacies, on the other hand, are already pretty tapped out on expansion. Their growth will most likely come from recapturing RJ flying (thankfully!) I suppose my point is that the situation isn't as dire at SW as you make it out to be. Delta is a good company but they can't hire ALL of us. Thankfully there are other good companies out there who continue to hire. Besides, I love ELP. Free hot breakfast. ;-)

Uhhhhh, recapturing routes while parking 200+ RJs is called expansion. 88 717s coming in 3 years. Some 757s being replaced by 739s, but 45 new A321s added on top of those. 10 new A330s coming. I'd call that expansion. Expanding a new hub at SEA to 170 daily flights by 2017? Yeah, that's expansion.

Things aren't dire at SWA, but the upward movement the rest will enjoy at the big 3 legacies (15,000 need to be hired at all 3) will improve the QOL for legacy new hires tremendously. There is a difference, besides just variety in planes and types of flying. You seem very defensive, and your veracity comes into question when you say you actually like an ELP layover. A free breakfast is all it takes??? I thought you guys were "rich" with that awesome contract of yours?



Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[FurloughedAgain]

Gen... You know me. You've known me here for over a decade. You know I've worked for several majors only to end up here late in my career by virtue of bad luck and questionable choices. I'm not defensive. Nor am I rich. Starting over time and again tends to make that almost impossible. Just think in your zeal to both pump up Delta and disparage SW you've overplayed your hand a bit.

And no, hot breakfast isn't ALL it takes. I like good wifi too!

Take care my friend. ;-)

 

[General Lee]

Gen... You know me. You've known me here for over a decade. You know I've worked for several majors only to end up here late in my career by virtue of bad luck and questionable choices. I'm not defensive. Nor am I rich. Starting over time and again tends to make that almost impossible. Just think in your zeal to both pump up Delta and disparage SW you've overplayed your hand a bit.

And no, hot breakfast isn't ALL it takes. I like good wifi too!

Take care my friend. ;-)

Alright, I agree with the free wifi too. But, I'm mainly pointing out the unbelievable upward progression for anyone hired at ANY of the big 3. I'm sure SWA is great and hopefully will be great in the future. I'm just comparing potential of upward movement due to retirements. Take care.


Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[learflyer]

Good luck. There are no crystal balls. I've worked for 4 major airlines and a Fortune 500 corporate flight department. Been furloughed from two and quit two on my own each time making the best decision I could based on the info I had at the time. Most have turned out to be wrong.

Make the best choice you can with the realization that things don't always turn out the way you think they will.

And if you're in your forties there's no time to wait to see if the prom queen will go to the dance with you. Dance with the first pretty gal that says yes and hope that it lasts until retirement.

Just my two cents.

Yes indeed. I'm in that category. Eagerly hoping that one of the remaining fat chicks at the bar at 0300 will talk to me.

 

[tankerhead]

They do more than talk, son.

 

[waveflyer]

You know- movement always helps-
But the problem with GLs quote is that QOL depends on movement, but while you're bottom bitch, life kinda sucks.
My life was great on day 1, under admittedly sub par reserve rules, at SWA.
Better than my pre 9/11 big 3 new hire experience -
That said I live and am from out west- commuting to sit reserve is never fun anywhere.
I agree with FA- it's not as dire here as it would seem by GL's broken record

Hey general, I didn't get it the first 200 times you posted. Could you copy and paste why delta's such a better place for a new hire again?
I just missed it
Thanks

 

[redflyer65]

Hey general, I didn't get it the first 200 times you posted. Could you copy and paste why delta's such a better place for a new hire again?
I just missed it
Thanks

The perfect post to show what an idiot this guy is. Almost 20 thousand post and probably 70% of them are the same.

Have you heard DL is getting 88 717's? Haha, what a dooosh.

 

[twepilot]

Frank was right..

RV

 

[General Lee]

Wavey,

For the 201st time (some people like you and Red may be slow), record retirement numbers means quicker upward movement, and that doesn't mean you have to ride the train up each bid. No, you can find a plane and a type of flying you enjoy (that's called variety) and stay there. You can get weekends off sooner, off reserve sooner, and enjoy a better QOL sooner. Orrrrrrrr, you can be at the bottom of a LCC list that has far fewer retirements scheduled and stay at the bottom longer, getting worse trips, and being the "biayach" longer. It's really not that tough to understand, and it's occurring at each of the big 3, not just DL.

So, I'll slow it down for you and Red and say "Havvve a grrrrreeeaaat Daaaayyyy duuuuudes."



Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[waveflyer]

God, he actually did it.

You can't even fathom a situation where your most junior pilot could have 15 days off a month and a decent qol can you, GL. No bitches here at all