US benefits are awesome but they suck for buddy passes and stuff. I've had friends find cheaper confirmed tickets than the buddy passes.
Does anything come close to Southwest?
- Thread starter thedrifter
- Start date
Jshutt64
Well-Known Member
WN doesn't have international benefits (aside from good ZED fares e.g. ZED Low on United) but our domestic benefits are the best. Employees and immediate family+parents fly for free, no taxes. Buddy passes are free, round trip, and taxed based on your income.
I currently get 16 round trip buddy passes a year, and each one costs about $5-$10 in tax.
I currently get 16 round trip buddy passes a year, and each one costs about $5-$10 in tax.
DPApilot
GUYSH! GUYSH! GUYSH!
FBO at a class D making $8.25, watching my hours go from full time to 4 to 3 days a week and training new guys who have no aviation background but are expected to fuel jets by day 2. Understaffed horribly and we're hiring more people, but just cutting everyone's hours instead of making a day shift and adding an extra person.
Make just under $11 starting pay at Major Airline part time and bennies are awesome!
Make just under $11 starting pay at Major Airline part time and bennies are awesome!
Firebird2XC
Well-Known Member
Nothing comes close to Southwest.
... we all get vectored out of the way so they can go first.
Ba-dum-dah! :laff:
... we all get vectored out of the way so they can go first.
Ba-dum-dah! :laff:
ASpilot2be
Qbicle seat warmer
JA Yawd Bwoy
Well-Known Member
Working at a Class C FBO airport, part time for now at 10$ an hour, love the management, love my co workers, I seen myslef here for a while! 
num1bearsfan
Well-Known Member
I'm curious,.. What is the pay like at US? What did you start making and what are you making now at 3.5 years? Are you guys unionized? Any history of furlough?
num1bearsfan
Well-Known Member
Hit my 5 year anniversary today! At Southwest 5 years is sort of the magic number. It's when you become fully vested in your retirement and profit sharing as well as when you're given an additional week of vacation a year :rawk:. That will give me 15 "day at a time" vacation days as well as 10 monthly free days. That's basically 5 weeks! Also $16.36 an hour up from $15.09 
. That sounds like chump change but with my 2 overtime shifts a week it will be good enough for $56k a year (before taxes). I was lucky to fall ass backwards into this job after high school 
. College grad money and no college grad debt!
. That sounds like chump change but with my 2 overtime shifts a week it will be good enough for $56k a year (before taxes). I was lucky to fall ass backwards into this job after high school . College grad money and no college grad debt!
Are you kidding? I don't even think my payscale even comes close to that. When I interviewed at XJT they said the payscale topped out at 14 but it took a ridiculously (more than 5 years) long time to top out. I've been with this airline for almost a year and I'm only making 9.10. Barely worth it some days.
n57flyguy
Well-Known Member
Hit my 5 year anniversary today! At Southwest 5 years is sort of the magic number. It's when you become fully vested in your retirement and profit sharing as well as when you're given an additional week of vacation a year :rawk:. That will give me 15 "day at a time" vacation days as well as 10 monthly free days. That's basically 5 weeks! Also $16.36 an hour up from $15.09
How do you balance your work and school schedule?
num1bearsfan
Well-Known Member
What school schedule?:dunno:
Jshutt64
Well-Known Member
I work for WN and go to school full time.
I'm technically part-time, but our part time is 30 hours a week, no less. For me, it's pretty easy to balance school and work.
First of all, I scheduled all of my classes for the mornings, 4 days a week. Naturally, the mornings run senior on all of our shift bids, so I'm at night. In addition to that, the weekends are senior so I always have a Mon/Tue off or a Tue/Wed.
Our shift trading policy is so cool that I've actually worked it out so I work doubles on Fri/Sat, my regular schedule on Sun, and have Mon-Thur off, which are my school days. When I have time I pick up shifts on Mon-Thur nights.
The only conflict happens when I get mando ot'd on a school morning, which happens occasionally. When that happens, I ask a friend if they can work the shift, and more often than not they can. I've had to miss a day of school once or twice because of work, but it's not a huge deal. The sups know my situation, and they do their best to work around it while staying in union rules.
n57flyguy
Well-Known Member
Excellent.
Hopefully my school schedule will be more manageable this semester. Spring went well, but the previous fall semester was horrible.
I just got my schedule reworked, and I'm only working the weekends now.
The issue before was the shift foreman and I were supposed to work two twelve hour shifts 0700 to 1900. We ended up working 0700 to 2300-0300 and doing that all over the next day. No sleep, and if I made it to class I was worthless. Not doing that again.
Hopefully my school schedule will be more manageable this semester. Spring went well, but the previous fall semester was horrible.
I just got my schedule reworked, and I'm only working the weekends now.
The issue before was the shift foreman and I were supposed to work two twelve hour shifts 0700 to 1900. We ended up working 0700 to 2300-0300 and doing that all over the next day. No sleep, and if I made it to class I was worthless. Not doing that again.
I spent 4 years working as an airport service agent with the airlines, 3.5 of those years being with regionals and about 6 months with a mainline carrier, before they outsourced to a regional. One of the rampers when I worked at ExpressJet made $75K through working over-time. He was making top out pay as he had been there for 16+ years. He also had about 4+ weeks of vacation per year. Most guys who had a family put in a little over-time per week, which was basically always available, and they did decent.
If you don't mind the work, go for it, even if it isn't with SouthWest.
If you don't mind the work, go for it, even if it isn't with SouthWest.
num1bearsfan
Well-Known Member
Absolutely. Some of my fondest memories of working in this field come from my previous job at a now defunct regional. This is where I actually fell in love with this line of work. Never a dull moment. We used to really have a lot of fun. Our bosses were just ramp guys like us and we'd shoot the s*** all day, nobody took anything super serious, and then we'd hit the bar after work. God we used to have so much fun at that place. There was absolutely no company "culture" or even a half hearted attempt from the company to make you feel appreciated, but our work group was a pretty close group and we didn't really pay much attention to anything outside of it. I remember days of being on deicing when conditions were favorable for frosting/ice/snow. We'd leave the truck running, take the radio and be at the restaurant down the street. Everything about that job was very cool aside from low pay and very shaky job security. I think the part that really made the job cool was that it always stayed interesting. To me, there is no greater hell than having to report to some sort of an indoor job, or even a construction job doing some laborious but dull task for years. But working in the airline/aviation industry is just always fresh and exciting. I can say with complete honesty, there's nothing I'd rather do. I'll be involved with the airline industry in some capacity as long as I intend to work.
num1bearsfan
Well-Known Member
Congrats man! You are about to have a lot of fun over the next few weeks. What city are you in?
DPApilot
GUYSH! GUYSH! GUYSH!
I'm out in Bolingbrook, will be working at MDW. Tomorrows my last day at ORD.
num1bearsfan
Well-Known Member
Ahh nice,.. Looks like you will be my new co-worker. It's a really great gig, you just have to sort of put in your time as a new guy. You'll start off with a PM schedule, making not so great money, and working Thanksgiving and Christmas. But in time things become really great. You're going to get the whole schpeel in Dallas, but you're going to enjoy some of the best benefits in the working world. Earning potential is also very high. You can essentially write your own paychecks. I'm a 5 year guy and make over 50k, with minimal OT. Topped out guys have been known to eclipse 6 figures.
Unfortunately though it sounds like you're going to have the same issue I did by being hired in the fall. You're going to have to do your probation in the full swing of winter. I'm not going to lie, it's rough. This job is really cool 9 months out of the year, but from December-February it's somewhat miserable. Just keep in mind that it's not always going to be like that. I can remember being a probie on my second straight mandatory double shift on New Years day standing between two freight carts dodging the fridged wind at 1am in a reduced state of consciousness asking myself WTF I was doing. I'm glad I stuck it out because there's not a day that goes by that I don't think about how grateful I am to have this job.
Also, be prepared for the jag loads. Unfortunately not everyone is as grounded. We've got a bunch of 10-15 year dudes who had the fortune of getting on with Southwest right out of high school and have never known a job outside of Southwest. They would be out on the street if I could have my way but unfortunately our union affords bullet proof protection to it's members. It's good in the respect that job security is a major perk of the job, but it also means that you have to work along side some really big losers from time to time.
Anyways, if you have any questions about anything let me know..