If I had stayed at SWA another 3 years as a ramper, I would have gotten stock "options." Those options woulda been free SWA stock given out as an incentive to sign the union contract that was renewed while I was there. "Option" does not necessarily mean you have the option to buy stock at $x.xx. Sometimes it means you get it for free. My wife gets stock options with Starbucks, but she has to buy them. Her options are she can buy the stock at the price it was 3 years ago. Unfortunately for us, the stock is trading for about half of what it was 3 years ago, so those options just sit there. If Starbucks was GIVING her the stock (like the SWA deal would have been for me), we'd be on it like white on rice.