I am
very close friends with a 20 year SW Captain, so all of the opinions below reflect his.
That all depends on what is important to you. It also has a lot to do with when you got hired.
This, in a nutshell is the KEY to a successful airline career. When comparing majors, there are a lot of variables to consider, but the ONE thing that never changes is that the more senior you are, the better your life will be.
The guys getting hired by SWA right now are being told 10-12 years till the left seat.
That sounds pretty optimistic, but, in this business, you never know. The guys that have upgraded at SW in the last few years were told 5-6 year upgrade and most were closer to or more than 10. 9/11, age 65 and the great recession changed the landscape.
There were two guys in my Delta in-doc class that left SWA for Delta. Even after two years of seniority at SWA, Delta was good enough for them to leave.
Times change, but I know several guys that left SW for UAL and DAL in the late '90's. All of them would've been
far better off staying at SW. When I say far better, I mean that instead of getting furloughed, for years, they'd have upgraded at SW.
I also know several guys who left other airlines, including DAL in the 90's to go to SW.
My friend was considering leaving SW in 98 and going to DAL. After very careful consideration, he figured that even with a multi year furlough from DAL (which he knew was likely and did happen), that at retirement age, he'd be better off at DAL, mainly because of the retirement. As a guy with a wife, kid, mortgage etc., weathering a furlough was not to be taken lightly, but he did decide to apply to DAL anyway.
As it turned out, even with well over 10k hours, almost 6k PIC turbine, 5 type ratings, FEJ rating and current in 4 737s, he did not meet DAL's minimum qualifications for hiring, as he did not possess a 4 year degree. It was somewhat of a relief for him, as he did not have to make the decision to leave 3 years of seniority behind him.
Any disappointment he might've felt disappeared in Jan 2001 when he upgraded. Post 9/11, he was actually GLAD he left college for a flying job, as he might actually have gotten hired (and subsequently furloughed a few years later) at DAL otherwise!
My old man was a Pan Am pilot that ended up at DAL with the Atlantic routes. If you told him on the day he was hired at Pan Am in 1960, that he'd retire from Delta, he'd have laughed in your face, as Delta was not much more than a regional at the time. You never know.....
Personally, international travel and not doing 5-6 legs a day is what I'm looking for.
SW has started international, and my friend hasn't done 5-6 legs per day in over a decade. 5-7 legs over a 3 day s pretty average.
I never considered applying to SWA because it doesn't interest me in the least, but others still say it's their dream job. That's the beauty of it, you have options.
Funny, but my friend had never considered applying to what amounted to a regional at the time either, but NO ONE else was hiring in the early to mid '90's when he was stuck at the commuter level. Heck, being a NYer, the only thing he knew about SW was that they had an airplane or 2 painted to look like Shamu. Several friends got on with SW and convinced him to give it a shot. He is very glad he did, because it worked out very well for him. He's sitting at around 1200 in an 8000+ pilot group.
SWA used to be able to say they pay the most, but that's not even close to accurate now.
Actually, prior to 9/11, SW were amongst the LOWEST paid pilots (per hour) in the industry, closer to Spirit than AA or DAL. Some of the disparity in hourly pay was made up by (far) better productivity. There was not a lot of sitting around in the old days, so a SW pilot could make a lot more per duty hour than the hourly rate belied. 10 minute turns were not a myth.
Post 9/11, the rest of the airline's pay scales tanked. At the same time, during some of the worst times the airlines have ever seen, SW pilots signed a contract with significant pay raises (in '02), making them amongst the highest paid narrow body pilots in the industry.
The economy has turned around a bit, so the big guys are negotiating better pay rates. SW is in contract talks too, so we'll see how they do while the company is making
record profits. .
They will come up with something else to lure pilots though - making people pay $5-8k to get their own type rating before getting hired was genius but I can't see that continuing to attract good people since they are no longer the pay leader.
The type requirement (as ridiculous as it is) was around long before 2002, when SW got a decent contract and the rest slid back. Even then, guys were lining up in
droves to get hired by SW. I foget the number, but when SW opened it's application window, they'd get thousands of apps for a few hundred positions. And every one of them had to have the type in hand, even to be interviewed. They changed it a few years later where you could be hired, but had to get it before starting class.
For clarification, SW just requires that you have the 737 type. They don't care how you got it, you just have to have it.
In spite of chat room rhetoric, it is not a PFT situation, in fact, you couldn't pay SW for the type (or any other training), even if you wanted to.
I hope they get rid of that requirement, which might've been useful 30 years ago, but serves little to no purpose now and, IMHO, only eliminates a lot of potential candidates.
As for the military vs. civilian hiring thing. At SW, these days, the classes are almost always a majority of ex military types. I'm not sure if it's an indication of hiring preferences at SW, or that the (typically) more industry savvy civilian guys are seeking other opportunities that don't require a type. This wasn't the case until recently, btw, so I suspect it is the latter.......
I've flown with plenty of folks from all backgrounds in my nearly 30 year career, and I can definitively say that the best, and worst, come from all of them. The 2 absolutely worst pilots I've ever personally flown and had to take the airplane away from were a pure civilian and an AF fighter guy. Both were truly frightening to fly with. The civilian guy got drummed out of the business, but the fighter guy is still flying.
Alternatively, the best guys I've flown with come from all backgrounds.
That said, if I had to pick a new hire to go fly hard IFR with me into busy airspace all day, not knowing anything else, I'd pick a seasoned former regional guy all day and twice on Sunday, as they've BTDT.
Bottom line is, all things being more or less equal, go to the airline that
hires you. If you get hired by more than one, you have a tougher decision, but that's a very good problem to have!
As of today, if I were working at a regional or somesuch, and had job offers from SW and DAL in my hand, I'd most likely pick DAL, for all the reasons mentioned.
I think the argument for resistance to change on the part of these fighter types is overstated. I'm sure there are guys who can't make the transition, but I haven't heard much in the way of it in my squadron.
