SWA Commuting Advice

[txpilot06]

My husband just received an offer from SWA last week. We currently live in Texas and would like to move out West (Oregon/Washington). Everyone is telling us not to do the commute particularly since he is also going to be doing a reserve position here in Texas. We have heard that he will initially be based out of Oakland/Baltimore or Phoenix. Upon completion of training, do you have an option of which base you'd like to go to or do they just send you where they need you? Are one of the three locations above easier to get than another?

Also, I'm a little confused on what it means to be "on reserve". Does this mean that you are paid to be on-call and if you are called, then you need to report to the airport within 2 hours? If you don't live in the location where you hold a line, then that means you would be spending alot of time away from home b/c you'd have to be "on-call" at your domicile, right? How long does a person stay in the reserve status?

Is there anyone out there who is doing a reserve position and work for SWA who is commuting? I'd love to hear about how you are making this work and if there are significant challenges. Thank you!

txpilot06

 

[firstthird]

I'm doing the reserves in Jacksonville and living in Chicago, where I'm based with SWA.

I would second the previous advice you guys got about not commuting if you don't have to. Being in Texas though, DAL is the most senior base and HOU is pretty senior also.

Lots of guys live in the Northwest and most (all?) of them commute to OAK.

The big thing raising the red flag is the double commute, to both your husbands primary job (SWA) and his reserve job (military).

It is so much easier not to commute, but many people make the choice to for many reasons. A lot depends on your husbands reserve (military) job too. Do they want him a certain number of days per month? Does he need to do a Dept. Head job in order to promote to O-5? Does he plan to do it until retirement or just to get past first year pay? My navy reserve squadron generally won't even pick you up unless you live in Jacksonville, since their previous experience has been that not many people to a double commute for very long.

to specifically answer your questions.

When you finish training you get sent where they need you, but as long as we are hiring semi-steadily he should be able to get any base within 6 months, although at a senior base like HOU, PHX or DAL; he'd probably be on reserve. Which to answer another question, yes it is a 2 hour callout, so if you don't live in base, you are sitting in a crashpad or hotel room when they aren't using you (but you tend to get used a bunch).

And I think that the junior base info you heard wasn't correct. I'd put the bases like this for FO seniority DAL, MCO, HOU, PHX, OAK, MDW, BWI. it might be a little different and it depends on what exactly you're talking about, the very most junior guy. Well, that might be oakland, but go up 50 spots, and OAK is actually pretty senior. So, you could get in base easy, but to get significant QOL gains in seniority will take much longer than BWI or MDW.

The only reason that I'm doing navy reserves (and commuting to do them) is that I did almost 4 years of navy reserves actually living in Jax and driving to MCO. I'm on the downslope of responsibility/need to be there all the time, so I can get away with minimum availability and days at the squadron. Probably wouldn't be true for a guy just starting a reserve job, but each squadron is different.

Unless you have a super pressing reason to move to the northwest, I'd put it off for a year or so to get the feel for both SWA and how SWA/military reserve mix. Now, if you were going to move to an SWA base, that might be more palitable, but moving to a non-base and commuting to TWO jobs. That isn't something I'd wish on my worst enemy. It surely isn't the QOL that most of us were looking for when we got off active duty to do the airlines.

 

[Bigoober]

I would second what firstthird said although I am currently still on active duty.

From what I have been asking others about commuting, seniority, and being a reservist, he is pretty dead on. Seeing the T-34's in your profile (husband's?), I am assuming that you are talking about Corpus. That sounds like a lot of travel all around for the job and the reserves especially for starting out with each. It will just add to the time away from home and moreso to the frustration of each. Hence, why some call it the "triangle of death".

For awhile, live in the area of your domicile or your reserve job. Things will adjust over the first few years and make it a much easier decision.