Commuting on Southwest

[WCT]

From what I understand a lot of folks have been renting cars to get home this week. Alamo doesn't have a drop off fee. A friend split it w/ 3 others so between the 4 of them with tolls, gas and rental it was about $48 bucks a person. The drive took 4.5 hours......

Songstew, I can't believe it has gotten that bad for you folks on the East to rent cars to get to your homes!!??? That is soo crazy! Are you that commited to commute just to retain this job!?? We PHX folks are soo fortunate to have our HUB, and many of us live in the desert!! Thank goodness. I couldn't imagine the torture, and headache every month commuting for this job?!! I have less pay in my contract now, but more flexilbility and vacation, and am able to live in a city with less stress. I am very thankful for the time being! We need better provisions for all commuter and employees system wide, enough is enough!! I envy you

 

[Travelpro72]

Folks will come up with every song, dance, reason and excuse for why they do the commute and stay. All I can say is, "Honey at the end of the year when you look at your W-2 earnings ask yourself was it all worth it".

 

[Mike]

Ok, thanks! I didn't realize that it was that far of a drive. I can understand now why flying would be so much easier.

Been there done that! PA Turnpike PIT- PHL airport. About 295 Miles. (5 hours) 590 miles round trip. PA Turnpike Toll $17.25. Round trip $34.50. Honda Civic- Aprox. 32 MPG. 18.4 Gallons Round trip at $3.25 Per Gallon =$59.80 Round Trip. Soooooooo... Tolls 34.50+ Gas 59.80+10 Hours (round trip)of VERY boring driving =$94.30. Then there is parking fees, etc. No fun any from any angle.

 

[WCT]

Folks will come up with every song, dance, reason and excuse for why they do the commute and stay. All I can say is, "Honey at the end of the year when you look at your W-2 earnings ask yourself was it all worth it".

You are right in a sense. But W-2 earnings aren't everything. Look at PIT, many peoples live were affected by this merger, and the last 2 bk's! Just the same thing could happen to an West coast base. No one is safe. But I am thankful to live in PHX for the time being.

 

[Travelpro72]

All I'm saying is that I did it and when you account for what you spend on the road, crashpads, occasional drives on the turnpike at $15.25 in tolls plus gas, Amtrak, or zed's on other airlines you pay a HELL of a lot out of pocket JUST to keep this job. Cut all that out and if you took a job outside of the airline you'd in many cases STILL be ahead.

I must add that I stay because I LOVE to travel and LOVE people. :wacko:

 

[Bear96]

Folks will come up with every song, dance, reason and excuse for why they do the commute and stay. All I can say is, "Honey at the end of the year when you look at your W-2 earnings ask yourself was it all worth it".

It is indeed mind-boggling what people will do to work at a company they claim they hate under what they claim are such terrible compensation and work rules.

If nothing else, it sends a clear message to management that LCC is still offering such great terms and conditions of employment, people will go through hell to work there. Underlying that is probably the thought that they can cut even more if necessary and still be able to retain enough qualified people to do the jobs.

 

[songbirdstew]

Songstew, I can't believe it has gotten that bad for you folks on the East to rent cars to get to your homes!!??? That is soo crazy! Are you that commited to commute just to retain this job!?? We PHX folks are soo fortunate to have our HUB, and many of us live in the desert!! Thank goodness. I couldn't imagine the torture, and headache every month commuting for this job?!! I have less pay in my contract now, but more flexilbility and vacation, and am able to live in a city with less stress. I am very thankful for the time being! We need better provisions for all commuter and employees system wide, enough is enough!! I envy you

Keep in mind though that this is Spring Break and also Easter Holy Week all wrapped into one. So it is bad this week. In addition, they did just add about 178 new commuters to the mix PIT-PHL AND since there is no longer a base there, there are only 2 jets a day and the rest are commuters. The commute used to be do-able and now it is much more challenging...a BIG plus is having LUV and the open cabin seat agreement.
Due to the fact that many of us from PIT saw the writing on the wall a long time ago, there are some who have second jobs and only fly the minimum 40 hours per month. This job is so hard to explain when I'm asked why I keep it. I really LIKE my job and am good at it. It's very difficult to give up even when you truly dislike the people running the show. I'm here for myself and my passengers and I am starting a second career that will pay twice what I make here but still I will stay at least for now........call me crazy.

 

[Travelpro72]

The actual "duty" of being a flight attendant is a cake walk. Yes it can be stressful, aggravating and tiring but overall when your ON the plane doing your thang it's a no brainer. Crack a can....push the cart....crack the can....push the cart. pretzel, pretzel, pretzel. I mean really. ONLY when you God forbid have an emergency do you really have to have it together. Nobody wants to give that up for a "real" job and the daily grind. The thing is though for commuters that DO work 80+ hours or a reserve sitting in base in a crashpad blows a HUGE and I do mean HUGE amount of money on this job. It's NOT worth it to me IMO. It may be fine for others but not me. We all talk about the time this job gives. Well I had someone ask me a GREAT question asking, "Does this job allow you to do MORE than it prevents you from doing as a reserve"? Great question that I'm STILL thinking about. As for hopping on WN...well let's hope with all those open seats to accommodate US folks and high fuel they don't cut a flight or two. WN if anything are not morons.

 

[Be Careful What You Wish For.]

Why on earth would people spend that kind of time and money driving.

WN seems to work well.

From what I've heard they have 8 jets a day for a one hour flight.

That sounds like a pretty easy commute.

 

[mga707]

Why on earth would people spend that kind of time and money driving.

WN seems to work well.

From what I've heard they have 8 jets a day for a one hour flight.

That sounds like a pretty easy commute.

Currently seven WN PHL-PIT RTs. ISTR a thread a while back that one RT will be dropped in May or June.

 

[nycbusdriver]

Why on earth would people spend that kind of time and money driving.

WN seems to work well.

From what I've heard they have 8 jets a day for a one hour flight.

That sounds like a pretty easy commute.

Except maybe when the flights are full, or near full and there are 25 non-revs standing by for 3 empty seats.

Does that really sound like an easy commute to you?

 

[jimntx]

Currently seven WN PHL-PIT RTs. ISTR a thread a while back that one RT will be dropped in May or June.

According to their currently published schedule on the Southwest website, if checking week of May 15 and June 15, there are still 7 r-t Sun-Fri, 5 r-t on Sat. You can check as far as August right now, and it remains 7 r-t everyday except Sat which has 5.

 

[Be Careful What You Wish For.]

Except maybe when the flights are full, or near full and there are 25 non-revs standing by for 3 empty seats.

Is that every WN flight on every day?

 

[skd]

Sure does make you appreciate what all those west coast people go through! Three base closures and a 5 hour commute.

 

[jimntx]

Is that every WN flight on every day?

Why even worry about that? It is so easy to call the SW non-rev line, check the loads, then list for a flight that is NOT full. The RES people on the non-rev line at SW are SO incredibly helpful. If I want a particular flight/time, they will check and say something like, "Well, that flight only has 2 seats available, but the flight 2 hours earlier is wide open."

If you choose to commute (as I do), you have to be willing to do some sitting around at base on days that the flights are full that will get you there right before sign-in. At AA, the only time that seniority even enters into the non-rev equation is with pilots trying to get a cockpit jumpseat. Otherwise, it is whoever checked in first. If your flight is at 0900, and you are not willing to get up at 0500 to check-in (we can't check in more than 4 hours prior to scheduled departure), then you take your chances on the number of people on the standby list--and DRXs (revenue passengers listed for a later flight who are standing by for your flight) go ahead of you on the standby list.

At SWA, non-revs go on the list in a certain order by class--employee non-revs go ahead of OAL non-revs. Within a given class, the time you present yourself at the desk determines your place on the list, period. They do not allow check-in more than 1 hour prior to scheduled departure. Again, if you want to waltz up to the counter 5 minutes before boarding, you take a chance that you may be at the bottom of a long list.