SWA Bases for New Hires

[Bally]

According to the unoffical SWA pool listing, I hope to be invited to a class within the next two months. Does anyone know if SWA is basing new hires at OAK or PHX?

Happily waitng a long long time to have the privledge to work at one of the ten best companies in the US (according to Forbes), not to mention the best airline of the majors.

Thanks for passing along any information you may have!

 

[RightBettor]

OAK???

Ummmmm, if I were a bettin' man I'd say you will not have any trouble getting Oakland if you want it. I understand OAK is likely the most junior base in the system... I could be wrong.

 

[Lonestar]

Bally

Have you sent your info in to get on our "unofficial" pool list? Just wondering where you fit into the order.

 

[MLBWINGBORN]

The FO bases in senority order are as follows..

1.DAL
2.MCO
3.BWI
4.MDW
5.HOU
6.PHX
7.OAK

After your IOE is completed you will get placed based on your class bids..

Mike

 

[CoopDog]

Ah shoot.....

The wife wants to move to MCO asap. Must be the cold Wx here right now.....and we live in NC. Looks like I'm gonna be a commuter until the Mouse House slot opens up. Guess I'd better invest in some new Goodyears for the Chevy, and learn to read.

Looking forward to warmer weather and NO STATE TAX.

 

[MLBWINGBORN]

Knowbody said you couldnt move..Just be careful of what you ask for!You just might get it..!

You can live in central FL and commute thru TPA or MCO to other bases but its harder during "the season" to head south to anywhere in FL as the planes are pretty full..

Also seems to be alot of ups and downs in the staffing in MCO with the guys near the bottom getting bounced back to BWI or even MDW sometimes..

Mike

 

[MLBWINGBORN]

One other thought..

There are a few guys that live in NC/SC that commute thru RDU..

Maybe stay where you are until you can hold MCO and then go to the Mouse House..

I hear the commute to MDW thru RDU is not bad at all..

Mike

 

[vx9.tc]

The FO Base seniority listed above is accurate for now but I believe that the April vacancy bid which closes on 27 Feb and posts the following day may shake things up a bit. There will be a plus up of 20 in BWI and 15 in MCO. The typical vacancy pluses and minuses per base are 2-4. For those of you that are really interested, post the seniority question on the 28th and one of us will check the list for the new order. My guess is OAK will still be junior, but the redistribution in April will allow more guys to get their first choices (except Dallas).

 

[Ripe on the vine]

Just curious, what is the Capt. base seniority?

 

[UGApilotDAWG]

Is it possible for someone to get HOU right out of class or is it more likely to get Oakland for several months before getting to an only slightly more senior base (HOU)?
I know there's no such thing as an easy commute, but MSY / HOU is gonna be my commute and thats every 30 minutes!

Aloha from Mardi Gras,
Les

 

[SWAnnabee]

# work days?

As a junior FO, how many days/month can you expect to be away from home. I saw a "virtual pilot" flight schedule on the Southwest Airlines website that showed a 15 day/month work schedule in 3 blocks of 4 day trips and one 3 day trip. Is this acurate? Seems that with that much time away from home you might as well join Cathay Pacific(sp?) and fly international for the big $$.
Just curious if this is accurate.

 

[falcon20]

UGA pilotdawg-
I commute out of msy, hired early 02, two months OAK, three months PHX, then hou. It could be much quicker if the hiring continues or the growth on the east coast continues as what we saw in the april vacancy bid.

 

[UGApilotDAWG]

thats good to hear that it took less than 6 months!
I know I am "on the bubble" for projected hiring this year...
It would be nice to get hired with enough people behind me to bid out before the next class freeze.
If not I guess I'll just keep swimming til' next year!

Keeping my optimistic fingers crossed...

Aloha,
Les

 

[UGApilotDAWG]

oh yeah Falcon I forgot to ask....

Are the lines you fly out of Oakland different from Phoenix different from Houston? I know SWA is point to point so I have heard you can still end up flying anywhere in the country no matter your primary domicile. Is that close to the mark? Or are the flights more regionalized? Just curious! The more nights spent below the Mason-Dixon line, the better! It's too hard to try to eat dinner without sweet tea!

Thanks,
Les

 

[Maynard]

Bases...

Right now, EVERYONE starts in OAK. Hope it changes for you, and most don't spend much time there (4 or 5 months depending on hiring). You'll get a hard line off of your list of choices initially (for the first month off of IOE), then a hard line in OAK for a month ( if it's still junior, which it will be), then seniority bids kick in, probably reserve in OAK, but FO reserves in OAK are all flying tons. PHX and HOU are next respectively right now, we'll see what happens with the changes in April. Good Luck...
ps. You'll fly pretty much all over, no matter where you are based, however, it is slightly regional at times. Hope that helps...

 

[MLBWINGBORN]

Captain bases in order of senority..

1 DAL
2 HOU
3 PHX
4 MCO
5 MDW
6 BWI
7 OAK

The difference between the numbers of BWI and OAK were only a total of six senority numbers..As BWI grows i would suspect that as a base it will become the most junior Captains base very soon and will remain so for some time do to the growth in the both the base as well as the traffic in the Northeast..

As for a new hire schedule..

The schedule you keep depends on many things..

As a new hire your lifestyle can be as poor as living on the east coast and being based in OAK with spending most of your days off trying to get to and from work to getting your first hard line off of reserve in base and being able to drop part or all of your trips and writing your own schedule out of open time..

One of the things that people dont talk much about is the quality of life you can create at SWA due to being able to swap trips,line improvement trip trade,pick up open time..give aways, ect ect..

You can work as hard or as little as you want..The paycheck gets alot smaller if you dont feel like working but you can still make that choice..

I cant really do justice to the system we have in this forum..But i can say that reserve can be tough and your time spent on reserve can vary alot depending on bases and hiring..

However..Once you are off reserve you can pretty much create your own schedule after a fashion and never have to call scheduling to get the changes approved..Just point and click..If its legal its done before you can get your finger off the mouse..

Trust me when i say that if you arnt good with a computer now you will be after a few months of being able to have a major impact on your lifestyle via the internet...

Mike

 

[MLBWINGBORN]

As for getting HOU straight out of the box..

Aint gonna happen..


Mike

 

[ivauir]

a question ...

I know PHX is pretty junior (for FOs), but would anyone care to wager a guess as to how many classes I'd need below me to get based there? How many does it generally take to hold a line?

Thanks!

 

[MLBWINGBORN]

uvauir..

Boy...Thats a tough one..
How that would or perhaps could happen can depend on so many things..

1 Class size and your senority in class..
2 Where you are in the wave of hiring...Last class for the year tends to get stuck..
3 What bases are increasing their staffing..ect ect..

Having said the above, i can say that ive seen a junior guy in class take three classes to get to PHX for a class that graduated in the middle of the hiring year to a senior guy in class going straight to PHX out of the school house that was in the first class of the year..

As for how long you may be on reserve..

Ive been on reserve for right at a year..
There are several reasons for this..Mostly its been due to my bidding to move to the next base closer to home..As i moved up in the bases i would end up on the bottom of the reserve lines again..
Plus we stopped hiring..If i had stayed at one of the more junior bases i would have been holding a line for many months..

PHX is a base that is known for the more senior guys bidding reserve and picking up open time...This is great for the junior guys as they are pushed up into the hard lines pretty quickly..Sorta like having artifical senority..

My sim partner has been holding a line in PHX after sitting reserve for a month and got it his second month on the line..

It all depends on movement and what part of the wave you are riding to the beach..

I hope this helps.

Mike

 

[canyonblue]

Year Anniversary tomorrow still on reserve in MDW. If only those dang BWI and MCO guys would leave MDW.