SWA Reserve

[hyeflyin]

Wanted to know if SWA has any long reserve callouts. If so how senior do they go? Also with 4 LOR from SWA pilots, is there any chance of getting a call from SW with only 1000PIC and no type? Finally does anyone know the website for the type rating school that SWA attends? Thanks in advance.

 

[Yahtzee]

Wanted to know if SWA has any long reserve callouts. I don't know what long reserve callout is. SWA has AM and PM reserve both using a Reserve Assignment Periods (RAPs) which last for three or four days for the most part with scheduled time off for crew rest between RAPs. You are eligible to be called at any time during your RAP. At Baltimore current AM Raps start at 0310 till 1810 Herb Time, with PM Raps starting at 1010 going till 0110. If called during your RAP while on reserve you have a minimum of two hours to arrive and check in on the computer at your domicile. Sometimes the schedulers will ask you to get there earlier if you can, and probably 99.9% of the pilots try their best to do so. From my experience, the schedulers will call in advance and tell you they are giving you a trip with xxxx show time when the trip is more than two hours out. I always appreciate that.

If so how senior do they go? For the most part at SW, reserve is fairly junior with some exceptions....some pilots might bid reserve to get certain days off (birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Arbor Day , or in hopes of picking up extra trips on their days off if not used for the entire Reserve Block.

Also with 4 LOR from SWA pilots, is there any chance of getting a call from SW with only 1000PIC and no type? There is always a chance but at the moment those chances are probably remote with only 1000 PIC and no type. Word on the street from the People Dept is approx 1500 to 1700 hours PIC with a 737 type is the min to be competitive at this time...but then again things are always fluid. It is rumored that SWA has somewhere around 5000+ apps in their database who meet the mins and more who do not. Of the 5000 meeting the mins, it is guessed that 1000 or so have a 737 type.

The type makes you more competitive, but so does turbine PIC time, instructor and evaluator time. Before you spend $$ on a type, I would advise you to chat with the SWA PD recruiters at one of their open houses to get "official" answers from the folks that invite folks for interviews and to continue to build your PIC time. If $$ is not an problem and you know you will be building several hundred more hours of PIC time this year, then getting the type makes sense to me.

Finally does anyone know the website for the type rating school that SWA attends? Thanks in advance. SWA stops by Higher Power Aviation just south of DFW on Fridays to chat with the classes and answer questions. www.jetcrew.com is HPA's website. HPA has info about SWA open houses has they also attend them.


Do a search of Higher Power on flightinfo. There are many threads about them and other places to get a 737 type rating.


Best Wishes if you decide to go to Higher Power....it's a great company due to the great people who work there.

 

[Snoopy58]

Just to add two thoughts to what Yahtzee posted, no SWA does not have long callout reserve (that would be like 12 hours instead of 2 to report -- a bennie for commutters, but less useful for schedulers). All SWA reserve has the same requirement: 2 hours phone-call to checkin. Also, LOR's do not help you get called for the interview. They only come in to play at the decision board after the interview is finished. (If 3 of the LORs are from Herb, Gary, and Colleen, that might be different, of course!) As Yahtzee said, your chances with right at 1000 hours TPIC and no type are pretty slim right now, but keep working on the qualifications. It's not a bad interview story to be able to tell how you sent in the app just as soon as you had that 1000th hour, that's how much you've been wanting to work for Southwest!

Best of luck!

 

[mach78]

Another point -- relative other airlines, SWA has a much lower % of pilots on reserve due to the flexibility of the contract allowing pilots who want to, to list themselves for extra fly, etc. Of course with the other airlines re-structuring their contracts, that % difference may not be as large as it used to be.

 

[PTinbound]

I applied with 1,010 hours of turboprop only PIC on my initial application, but I had gotten the type when I had 700 PIC because I knew I only wanted to go to SWA and I didn't want to waste any time.
Higher Power is an AWESOME place to go! In my entire life, I've never met a businessman with more honesty, integrity, and values than Mark Sterns.

 

[luv2fly]

I applied with 1000.7 hours Turbine PIC and no type. I also knew exactly who I wanted to work with and didn't want to waste a minute. I also trained at HPA for my type. Mark Sterns is one stand up Guy, the whole group at HPA ROCKS!!

 

[hyeflyin]

Thanks for the replies. One other question, how are the OAK and PHO lines.

Which is the larger base and are most of the trips 3 day or 4 day trips. Also are the lines commuter friendly. Living in Los Angeles and just trying to get an idea on quality of life. Thanks.​

 

[Snoopy58]

Good question about the OAK & PHX lines, and anything that specific that I tell you about this month's lines may well be out of date in 6 months. In general, OAK is almost entirely a commuter base, PHX has a more significant fraction of residents. Anywhere you go, some lines are commuter-friendly, some aren't, and those lines go higher than they otherwise would because of that fact: after some months on the line, you might be able to hold, say, Thu-Fri-Sat with a o-dark-thirty start (not commutable, but home Saturday night), or a Fri-Sat-Sun that's commutable on both ends. LAX to OAK would be fairly easy as commutes go, with LAX-PHX not much worse. Biggest thing, I'd look at Southwest.com to see earliest & latest flights in each direction for those cities... the earlier the second LAX to (base) flight gets in, the more AM starts you could commute in for, and the latest the LAST (base) to LAX flight departs sets the latest return that will work for you.

Again, what the schedule (both flight schedule & bid schedule) looks like right now may well be different in 6 months, but the good news is that by the time you're in class & needing to consider what to bid for, you'll also have access to union guys with better numbers than I have, as well as talking to guys who've made exactly that choice & can talk to you about the factors they look at. We have a bunch of guys commute from LA, and they can give you the first-hand scoop.

And finally, you can bid from OAK to PHX to OAK to PHX as often as you want, so you could, for instance, stay in OAK until you can hold a hard line in PHX, then stay there until guys junior to you in OAK are holding commutable lines, then back to OAK, etc. All that said, your relative seniority will almost always be better as an FO in OAK than in PHX, so I'd suspect that's where you'll probably spend more of your time. But it's all your call. Best of luck!

Snoopy

 

[RightBettor]

OAK and PHX are pretty much the same size and the lines are very similar. I could be wrong, but that's what I gather having been based at both. OAK will likely have more west coast flying (which is nicer in the summertime... SEA, PDX, OAK, SMF, GEG, BOI, SAN, etc. are much better in August than places like MDW, MCI, HOU, etc. Think level 5 storms with tornados. ) Otherwise the lines are pretty much the same with 3 and 4 day pairings in the mix. Both bases are very commuter friendly from So. Cal. If you are near ONT or LAX you'll have multiple flights to choose from all day (BUR and SNA offer fewer choices.) ONT to OAK or PHX is probably the easiest commute in the world. You'll have about 13 flights/day (fewer on Saturday) to each city and the flight is aout 1 hour either way. (LAX is about the same) PHX has the advantage of using HP from any of the four So Cal cities, and they are very nice to us with a multi-seat jumpseat agreement.

PHX has some advantages over OAK. For one thing, you are less likely to get "capped" by someone walking around the commuter hotels in the PHX area. In OAK, best be careful walking around that garden spot. The hotels in PHX are more available and cheaper than OAK. You'll save about 10 to 20 bucks per night in PHX. Disadvantages to PHX... you'll bake during the summer, be sure to drink lots of water. Also, you'll want to see a dermatologist more often.

Overall, both bases are great with excellent people to work with, but that can be said of any of our bases. PHX is getting a new crew lounge. Word is we will have a putting/chipping green, swimming pool, and a full size poker table to accompany our big screen TV!! Although that may be a rumor. Concentrate on getting the job first, then worry about bases. Good luck.

 

[Snoopy58]

Hey RB -- where's the new lounge supposed to be located?

 

[C-150ETOPS]

PHX has some advantages over OAK. For one thing, you are less likely to get "capped" by someone walking around the commuter hotels in the PHX area. In OAK, best be careful walking around that garden spot.

Love it.
Reminds me of Gulf War I when my company was doing charters for the war build up. Friends and family had that, "oh my gawd, you're flying to the Middle East!!!!?" . I never got there, but got to OAK. Around 1:00 am, (near the Hilton?), a gunfight breaks out in the parking lot near my room ,(less than 100 yrds, around 20 rounds fired), I hit the floor thinking thank God bullets are not getting near 350,00 US troops in Saudia Arabia.

I had flapjacks at the Waffle House the next morning. The HUD Cops that drove up had about 10 bullet holes in the sides of their cruiser

 

[GogglesPisano]

Very interesting. Does it help to update the app after every trip (like JetBlue?)