Feel the LUV
I am a militray guy looking to depart; hopefully to SWA. Can somebody provide me some information about SWA. You help is greatly appreciated!
How long is SWA training? is it in Dallas?
About 6 weeks. Yes.
How is your domiscile selected and when do you find out? I understand you don't have to live there but you would be adding days onto your trips.
Needs of the company (sound familiar?) gives spots to fill. Your initial trip with a check airman (evalulator) will be a four day and they try to give you the domiicile that you want for that one. Then you get a "hard line" no sitting reserve (alert) for one month. That doomicile will be at what ever is most junior at the time...basically every pilot at the company lists where they want to go. The company then assigns seats (Captain and FO) and Domiciles (OAK PHX MDW DAL HOU BAL MCO) by senority. At first you won't have any senority so you will go where ever is left over when the senior guys pick (OAK BAL are typical, although MDW has grown so fast it is going pretty junior). The point is - you can't count on any domicile initially - but OAK and BAL are good bets. This is USUALLY short lived (I did one month in OAK and have been at my first choice PHX for over two years). Not only are you on the road longer when you commute, you almost always need to get a hotel (at your own expense), because there are very few lines that are "commutable" on both ends and those lines go senior. This gets VERY painful when sitting reserve.
What domisciles are the hardest to get? What is the seniority order of these bases?
This varies from month to month as the company grows at different rates in different domiciles: a typical order is DAL HOU MCO PHX MDW BAL OAK, but this is not etched in stone. Senior to junior.
What is a typical trip for a newbee/days work per month? I understand it depends, but what is typical?
The WORST schedule in the company (IMHO) is a reserve line. These lines get 15 days off, "hard" lines (ones that are trips, not reserve) have more days off than this (usually). Typically you'll have 3 or 4 day blocks of work followed by 3 or 4 days off.
How far in advance do you find out your flight schedule? Can it change after it is posted?
You get it on the 12th unless you get a "blank" line then the 22rd. A blank line is a line made up of the "table scraps" left over from the biding process (due to vacation, military leave etc).
You can change you schedule a lot if you want, otherwise it won't change very often.
How do reserve lines work? Can a junior guy bid for those?
Bid for them or don't, you'll work them. Like I said 15 days off, you live on the beeper for the other 15 or 16 days. Don't make any tee times, because you will work most if not all of these days. You have to be able to get to the airport in 2 hours after they call you. I did it for almost a year. It wasn't so bad, but holding a line is much better.
Sorry for these questions and thank you for any help you can provide.
I hope this helps, I hope I didn't go too basic.
Have a wonderful Day!!
You too!
