Swa Expects To Maintain Low Cost Advantage

[Bagbelt]

No more toilet paper or golf pencils. Passengers will be encouraged to steal the rolls out of the terminal. And the majors spend Billons on golf pencils. We'll send a guy to every local bowling alley to get them.

 

[WNJETFIXER]

No more toilet paper or golf pencils. Passengers will be encouraged to steal the rolls out of the terminal. And the majors spend Billons on golf pencils. We'll send a guy to every local bowling alley to get them.

[post="304658"][/post]​

AND I WANT TO BE THAT GUY!!!! CAN YOU IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES!!

 

[mrman]

One area I can think of is the more senior FA's that trade all but the minimum amount of trips just to keep health insurance. Does this seem right? The overhead costs to keep these employees has to be high

 

[WNJETFIXER]

One area I can think of is the more senior FA's that trade all but the minimum amount of trips just to keep health insurance. Does this seem right? The overhead costs to keep these employees has to be high

[post="304958"][/post]​

I believe that when they trade, the one who picks up the trade is only on straight time, so doing this is a wash for the company.

 

[mrman]

I believe that when they trade, the one who picks up the trade is only on straight time, so doing this is a wash for the company.

[post="304967"][/post]​

Actually its not when you consider training costs, overhead costs, HR costs to maintain this employee

 

[PlanetKyle]

Actually its not when you consider training costs, overhead costs, HR costs to maintain this employee

[post="304972"][/post]​

Actually this is a discussion we've had amongst ourselves. I figure that even with all the associated costs of the employee who gives everything away (there is no minimum work requirement) it's got to be a wash for the company. If a senior f/a gives away a trip to a new person, then the wage difference must cover the costs. Top out: $47 and change, new f/a: let's say $20, that's $27 x 6.5 per day minimum, or $175 for one day's work. WN watches all costs like crazy, so if it were expensive to do it this way, they would have addressed it by now.

PK

 

[bwipilot]

True, but would the senior FA who gives everything away keep a "job" with SWA if they had to actually work. The senior FA who dumps everything is akin to a middleman. I understand your points with the lower pay rates for trips given to junior FAs. I would agree if it was a matter of senior FA's giving 25% of their flying away but when they give more than say 60-70% (just a wag) they become dead weight.

 

[corl737]

I didn't see where Gary mentioned the word "concessionary". He talked about productivity, however I did wonder why he mentioned that we are in talks with the pilots and will soon be with the f/a's and not talking about EVERYONE in the company.

[post="304342"][/post]​

I think the reason was that these groups were actively engaged in very visible mutual productivity discussions at the time of the interview. The press tends to like to give unreasonable emphasis on flight crew wages, often forgetting that without the ground folks the flight crew wouldn't have any airplanes or passengers to fly. Gary's omission, I'm sure, wasn't meant as an indication he believes that some groups are less valuable, just a statement reflecting what the media picks up on. (I'm sure all work groups are either participating in informal talks or will be shortly!)

The pilots just concluded a 6-week scheduling productivity summit that evaluated over 50 specific recommendations how we can be more effective employees when we're on the clock. The results haven't been put into action yet but I know they're coming. Personally, I'd love to work my FAA-limit of 8 flight-hours/day* every day I come to work. Tweaking the aircraft flows to produce a schedule that will allow that to happen requires a lot of "eye-of-newt and bat wings."


* "flight hours" count only the time between the aircraft leaving the gate at the origin to the time it stops at the gate at the destination. The time on the ground at the gate doesn't count as flight time but does count as "duty time" which is also restricted by the FAA to 16 hours in any 24 hour period. The contractural limits are a little better to live with and are the focal point of the scheduling summit.