SWA to speed up Airtran integration.....article

[madjack]

Sorry Ty,

Former AAI MKE 737 pilot as well as several other FAT pilots confirm the fact that the disgruntled ATL pilots are the same geniuses that "influenced" the MECs decision (unduly and not reflective of the majority) and will be the future FAT malcontents at SWA...

 

[scoreboardII]

Different strokes for different folks, but I'll take my 6 hr block average per day, 2-3 legs per day average with 18-22 hr overnights over your 4-6 legs per day 6.5 hr block average trips with 12-13 hr overnights EVERY SINGLE DAY OF THE WEEK!

I've seen your lines. From your crappy ones to your senior lines. I like ours better.


I'm here to work my 70-80 block hours a month, 840-960 hours per year (before vacation). The question is HOW HARD do I have to work to make that time. Here I can do it in 2-3 legs per day flying longer legs to fun destinations with long overnights. There... not so much.

Everyone on here was saying how EASY it was to get rid of your trips at Southwest, to trip improve, to pick up premium time, how much better our Quality of Life would be over there... unfortunately, it's not true, not for our F/O's anyway. People at my seniority over at SWA are working EVERY weekend, EVERY holiday, can't get rid of their trips, never get premium time because senior people snag it, etc, etc. And those are from guys who were all RAH RAH SOUTHWEST at the MEC meetings before the votes and couldn't get there fast enough.

They like the company (Southwest). They hate their Quality of Life compared to what it was at AirTran.

Therefore I'll hang out here until I'm forced across the partition, that's all. Not angry about it, but it's a simple fact, our Quality of Life and trip trading/dropping system is superior to yours due to the lack of ability to straight drop back to the company or trade trips without some imaginary threshold of minimum duty days we "owe" the company.

In my world, I owe the company an amount of "hours", not a set amount of days, and if I can drop duty periods while simultaneously keeping hours, that should be my business, not anyone else's, the company included.

And who said anything about a picket line, Mr. Random Comment? Go drink a toast to the new year or something (our cab shows up to take us downtown in about 30 minutes).

Lear, you're rewriting history, there was more than enough folks on here telling you guys that once you got your line, that would be your line. Seniority gets you the ability to drop your line. We also told you that. You guys are amazing, you want it all, our seniority, our pay, our company work rules, and you want to drop your trips so you don't have to work. Happy new year Lear, while employed at SwA, expect to earn your pay, that's how this company has lasted four decades. Not finagle schedules to ride the pine.

 

[SWA/FO]

Lear wants to get paid for doing nothing. Not going to happen at Southwest Airlines, sorry dude.

 

[Lear70]

Lear wants to get paid for doing nothing. Not going to happen at Southwest Airlines, sorry dude.

Not at all. I work my 70-75 hours here at AirTran, and I will there, too.

The simple fact is, and another SOUTHWEST PILOT actually said it in THIS thread too, which is what I replied to initially, that you can just "get rid of your trips" if you don't want to fly that much when, in fact, you can't.

Like I said, before you guys twisted it into something it's NOT, I don't mind flying. In fact, I happen to LOVE flying. I just like our flying better than yours and will be sad to see our trips morph into the Southwest high-frequency short-leg model. Some people like long haul (like me), some people don't. Unfortunately, there's more short-haul/high-frequency flying than not at Southwest.

Just the way it is. Twist it all you want, I never said I want to ride the pine. I just like long legs and long overnights in fun places, which is one of the major reasons I got into this job to begin with.

Happy New Year to both of you, despite your ill-intentioned postings that constantly try to twist what we say. The good news is that everyone else sees past it.

 

[madjack]

Oh everyone sees right past it alright...

 

[SWA/FO]

The simple fact is, and another SOUTHWEST PILOT actually said it in THIS thread too, which is what I replied to initially, that you can just "get rid of your trips" if you don't want to fly that much when, in fact, you can't.

I get rid of my trips every month. One can, you probably can't.

 

[717capt]

Sorry Ty,

Former AAI MKE 737 pilot as well as several other FAT pilots confirm the fact that the disgruntled ATL pilots are the same geniuses that "influenced" the MECs decision (unduly and not reflective of the majority) and will be the future FAT malcontents at SWA...

Jack, First off Happy New Year to you and all the folks at FI.
I'm not sure which former MKE pilots you have spoken with, but I will share with you this. The LEC chairman, at the MKE domicile, who is now at SW, is a very good friend of mine. He was one of the 8 voting members of the mec and was very much involved and right in the middle of the sli9/10 process. We would speak from time to time during the process and he would share with me a few things that he probably shouldn't have, but nevertheless he did. One of the items he shared with me was that he (Capt LEC rep) and the FO lec rep, polled their respective constituents as to how they should vote on sli 9. Mke was a relatively small base at the time, 100 pilots I think, so it was fairly easy to get input from the pilots. He told me that overwhelmingly the majority of the mke pilots told him and the fo rep to vote no on sli 9 and he also had all the documentation to prove it. I believe the MCO reps did the same thing, but not sure. Lear can probably confirm that.

Now I'm not saying that former AirTran pilots that you have come in contact with are not making it sound like a few rogue atl malcontents are pure evil and influenced the mec decision, however I think that they are being disingenuous with their answers and only telling you what you want to hear. Especially the mke guys, for you see, they made out better than anyone else in this thing. Most are way junior and are already at SW and most of them.. most of them... told their respective reps to vote no on the first agreement. Go figure.

On a purely separate note, I wonder if you and the rest of the sw guys on here and those that you run into in your travels could send a note to your negotiating committee to try and get 2 new things in the negotiations. It may be a long shot but what the hell..
1. The ability to straight drop trips. Lear and PCL are absolutely right. It's a good thing when it works.

2. To get some sort of pay when going through customs, if you keep on flying after that. You guys don't have to deal with that right now, but soon you will. Sometimes it's very frustrating when you have to go through customs and have to fly another leg after that and are stuck in line. Granted there are dedicated crew only lines, but if another international flight comes in or 2 or 3 at the same time, those lines can get very long. Lear and General Lee can certainly attest to that. Like I said long shot, but worth a try.

 

[Kermit_D_Frog]

2. To get some sort of pay when going through customs, if you keep on flying after that. You guys don't have to deal with that right now, but soon you will. Sometimes it's very frustrating when you have to go through customs and have to fly another leg after that and are stuck in line. Granted there are dedicated crew only lines, but if another international flight comes in or 2 or 3 at the same time, those lines can get very long. Lear and General Lee can certainly attest to that. Like I said long shot, but worth a try.

Regarding getting paid while rotting in a customs line. That IS something we should insist on. Good luck though because SWAPA is all about trip pull for avoiding the cockpit. A bunch of seagulls and even penguins. Therefore this won't affect them and they won't care that the junior pukes will be the ones giving even more time away for free.

 

[Falconjet]

Lear: certainly the company can deny your drops if there isn't enough reserve coverage, can it not? Just curious.

 

[Lear70]

I get rid of my trips every month. One can, you probably can't.

So in one sentence you bash me for wanting to get rid of some of my trips, saying that it's laziness and not wanting to fly, etc, etc, then YOU say that YOU get rid of YOUR trips every month?

You're good for a laugh, have to give you that. *snerk*