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!

 

[GFunk20]

Actually, being a commuter sometimes works to your advantage since you're more likely to find and fly out-of-domicile pairings.

Do the trips you pick up have to start at a domicile or can you pick up open stuff out of various cities?

 

[fool737700]

just wondering why does SWA have such a complicated (at least for me) pay system? why not just pay per hour?

If you do not like the way we get paid here DO NOT apply!!! We do not force anyone to work here. Anybody who has a brain loves the the trip pay over the pay by the hour.

 

[FatesPawn]

If you do not like the way we get paid here DO NOT apply!!! We do not force anyone to work here. Anybody who has a brain loves the the trip pay over the pay by the hour.

Do you think he'll answer you? He asked that question in a post a YEAR ago. Welcome to FI.

 

[GuppyWN]

Geeze brother. Why the smack down? I think it's "fuzzy math" the way we get paid too. Does that mean I should quit?

There's got to be a good deal in it for the company or we would have stopped it years ago.

Gup

 

[RDG]

Do the trips you pick up have to start at a domicile or can you pick up open stuff out of various cities?

You can pick up wherever you want. But guys in base have priority on the open time.

 

[THEPRFCT10]

The may be a dumb question, but...

I assume they don't teach you this in training, so what would you guys say is the typical time it takes to learn this and how do you learn it? Is it going to be trial and error....just do and learn ourselves? Obviously $$$ is a great motivator, but I was just wondering how we learn this---bidding, TFPs, etc, you get the picture!

 

[400ADude]

I assume they don't teach you this in training, so what would you guys say is the typical time it takes to learn this and how do you learn it? Is it going to be trial and error....just do and learn ourselves? Obviously $$$ is a great motivator, but I was just wondering how we learn this---bidding, TFPs, etc, you get the picture!

You'll learn it as you go along. As a first year FO just pick up as much Open Time and Extra Fly as you can so 2nd year pay kicks in. You could probably do 120 Trips per month if you work hard at it on first year. As far as bidding, you will be on reserve weekends and then get a Blank Line weekends then ultimately a line weekends. When you get a line though, you can trade trips around so it maximizes your days off when their is a lot of Open Time. Then Extra Fly or VJA. The more senior the better.

Welcome aboard!

 

[THEPRFCT10]

You'll learn it as you go along. As a first year FO just pick up as much Open Time and Extra Fly as you can so 2nd year pay kicks in. You could probably do 120 Trips per month if you work hard at it on first year. As far as bidding, you will be on reserve weekends and then get a Blank Line weekends then ultimately a line weekends. When you get a line though, you can trade trips around so it maximizes your days off when their is a lot of Open Time. Then Extra Fly or VJA. The more senior the better.

Welcome aboard!

Wow, clear as mud!!! I see what you mean: I figured it will be much easier to learn once we start flying and I bet it'll be one of those "lessons learned" experiences! Hey, I'll post this on LCC as well, but with less than 2 weeks to the Apr 9 class, what should I/we study---the welcome packet they sent is VERY overwhelming, especially with only 2 weeks to prepare instead of at least 30 days! Just trying to see what I should concentrate on to "get a head start and be as prepared as possible. Thanks!

 

[JumpJetter]

Memory Items
Limitations

Only if you have time
Flows
Watch the systems videos on the CD


...prepare your liver....especially since you are an air force guy.......he he he

 

[RDG]

There will be a day when a scheduler comes in and explains how to earn 2nd year pay and trip trading and all that stuff. But you will have more important things to get to. So when you get ready to do it for the first time, you won't remember any of it.

Limitations, memory items. Schedule the static trainer early and often with your sim partner and start learning your flows. White pages of the FOM is your day to day job. Read that.

Don't sweat it. By far the easiest airline training I have had. Prepare for a couple of 12 hour benders. Liver spots should be gone a week or so after training.