SWA "trips" pay?

[SWA GUY]

6 trips for pay each reserve day as well.

And if skeds uses you, 6.5 TFP. Plus if the actual trip pays more (Good chance it will) you get the greater.

 

[Tejas-Jet]

The basic premise is that we get paid by the DISTANCE instead of the TIME. This was done to encourage on time or ealry arrivals a long time ago. (No matter how fast you get there Dallas isn't going to get less than 243 miles from Houston). That, BTW, is why 1 trip= 243mi. First flt was DAL-HOU and it became the standard unit of measure. .

I thought that DAL-SAT was the first flight and the 1 trip=243 miles came from an average?

Any-hoooo....I usually do 110 trips per month and that usually comes out to 70-75 hours of block for me....but I work it....do a bunch of mixin' and matchin'

 

[737ski]

Just like a hooker....

And you, "many, both, alot" have & will do better...

 

[Mach 80]

A fairly new SWA pilot told me he made over $60,000 in first year by giving away many of his original trips and "extra-flying" and picking up open time.

 

[328dude]

A fairly new SWA pilot told me he made over $60,000 in first year by giving away many of his original trips and "extra-flying" and picking up open time.

Shhhhh..... it's a secret....

All joking aside, that is exactly what happens on a regular basis to suppliment your income. It's really up to you if you want to or not. Anything you pick up in daily, monthly or Extra fly is paid at second year rates.

 

[chris69]

Bored so I ran the numbers for my original April line, my actual April line and my planned May line. Numbers are for 5th YR FO and reflect trading around alot in April due to Military leave reasons and bid similarly for May.
Month/TFP/Block Hours/Conversion Ratio/Apples to Apples Hourly Rate/Days
April(Orig)/99.3/84.3/1.178/$122.82/13
April(Act)/93.7/73.49/1.275/$132.93/12 Underflew alot and good trip trading
May(Plan)/102.4/87.2/1.174/$122.40/14
Worked trip trades to get 4/25 - 4/30 off and bid Mon - Wed/Thur in May and have first 7 days off. Not a vacation, unfortunately, gotta go to El Centro, CA for a week. So in my case, for what I have to bid, I usually start with a ratio of 1.17-1.18.

 

[maxpwrset]

A fairly new SWA pilot told me he made over $60,000 in first year by giving away many of his original trips and "extra-flying" and picking up open time.

FWIW, I did over 60K in my first year, utilizing the "extra flying" paid @ 2nd year pay thing as much as I could.

It takes some work, both in the plane and on the computer to make that happen, but it's very doable. And I did it with a lower $/TFP scale. But, I live in domicile. If one were a commuter, it would be much more difficult(but possible) to pull that off.

In my second year, I'm on track to break 6 figs pretty easily. I shoot for about 110 TFP/month, and usually end up somewhere a little above of that. The flexibility is great, and if you're willing to spend the time on the computer, you can really improve your pay and QOL.

 

[CF34-3B1]

It only takes 108 TFP a month to hit $100k as a 2nd year FO here.

Most of us easily do 100+ TFP a month

I've got 116 this month and so far 110 next month but I'll probably do some swapping and get it a little higher or possibly sign up for VJA.

I don't count on VJA pay since you never know if they'll call or not, but I got lucky with 2 VJA trips and did 149 TFP a few months ago. 88 hours of block time to do it.

 

[Fly-diver]

no brag, just facts

FWIW, I did over 60K in my first year, utilizing the "extra flying" paid @ 2nd year pay thing as much as I could.

It takes some work, both in the plane and on the computer to make that happen, but it's very doable. And I did it with a lower $/TFP scale. But, I live in domicile. If one were a commuter, it would be much more difficult(but possible) to pull that off.

In my second year, I'm on track to break 6 figs pretty easily. I shoot for about 110 TFP/month, and usually end up somewhere a little above of that. The flexibility is great, and if you're willing to spend the time on the computer, you can really improve your pay and QOL.

I grossed over $68K in my first 12 months at SWA, including training pay for the first 1.5 months. Year 2 gross: $108K. And I commute (offline), and I spent several months on reserve (not by choice).

The money is there if you want it and are willing to put in some time working the schedule, and you don't mind commuting all over the system. Actually, being a commuter sometimes works to your advantage since you're more likely to find and fly out-of-domicile pairings. It's also a lot easier to make extra money when you like your job and the people you work with.

 

[328dude]

It's also a lot easier to make extra money when you like your job and the people you work with.

True dat!