3Cforme

Planespotters.net shows 21 active 737-500s in the WN fleet.

http://www.planespotters.net/Airline/Southwest-Airlines

OPNLguy

That may be down to 19 or 20 by now, as I thought I saw N504SW on the MX ramp the other day with the tail logo painted over--a sure sign she's about to fly the coop for some desert storage area. We had 25 in the fleet at one point, and we're supposed to be down to about 10 by year's end, with those 10 going in 2013.

I think the only way a -500 will be seeing Hawaii is as a convenient 12-pack of Kona or Primo beer...

johnslloyd

Chuckle. Boeing must have had one h*** of a salesman offering one h*** of a deal to get Herb to buy those 500s in the first place!

Eemraldskies

The FA's have never opposed international/near international flying. We are looking forward to a lot of the new destinations as are our valued customers.

The opposition pertained to items such as duty day, changes to red eye flying language, adding South American cities under the "near international" classification that were not in the first TA, check-in changes due to customs and many other contractual language changes to accommodate the new destinations.

Many of you may not know it but we are not paid when the flight is on the ground, our pay does not start until the door is closed and stops when the door opens. Just thought I'd add that.

qwertyasdfghzxcvbn

So you clean the plane for free?

mile ho

+1

djp98374

Flip side how to decide who gets to do these routes especially if it means an overnight stay.

Same with Mexico and caribbean AirTran routes.

Eemraldskies

Yep. As well as sit on the ground during delays. What we perceive to be an 8 hour duty day on paper can turn into an 11 1/2 hour duty day with no additional pay. There are certain duty day maximum numbers that kick in extra pay, but not on an average day.

djp98374

I do believe they will follow a routing used by northwest where it wasa mainland-ogg-Koa mainland or a mainland-hnl-lih-mainland and a mainland -hnl-ogg-mainland.

I think they will use lax and oak as main launch points. Sea/PDF is posdble...I'm not familiar with the distance limits with certain planes in their fleet.

If the were ble to do this they could do a route like sea-hnl-PDx-sea. Then they also would add competition to the sea-PDXroute.

mile ho

I think it's more like 5/95. Since it is a vacation destination and CPs are used primarily for that purpose the number of seats filled by those non-rev butts would be quite high.

I have a CP and so does my wife. I would bet heavily against our CPs being valid using current rules on Hawaii flights. Inter-Island? Probably if they were to do that. Mainland to HI? Very doubtful.

I hope I'm wrong.

LegalTender

I think the odds are assigned seating to and from Caribbean stations will be part of that reservation system "upgrade."

These are stations where it's a lot safer to know who is sitting where, as watch list databases are handled by sub-contractors working for several carriers. Such is the case at FL and DL, among others. Agents just change uniforms or lapel pins; no one needs them full-time to work one daily op.

chuckworth

How are unexpected diversions handled? I would hope that you guys are paid for the entire time of the diversion and not just flying time.

Yellowirish

Not to troll but.... I'm salaried in a different profession, travel and don't receive comp time. If someone wants an hourly job with a clock they should absolutely follow their dream and go for it. The labor laws are designed for 16 year olds working at fast food restaurants.

Especially in this economy, I know of airline employees that would love a SoCal to Hawaii route.

Eemraldskies

Yep, only while in the air unless we cross the maximum duty day outlined in the contract do we receive extra pay for that time. Our duty is only while flying so anytime the plane lands the clock stops on our pay.

Coming from a corp world it was hard for me to wrap my head around this, but being in the biz awhile I understand it although I don't necessarily agree with it - but again - we are only paid while the doors are shut unless it crosses the magic 'duty day' max outlined in our contract.

When folks want to say we (FA's) are asking for "more" in our contract negotiations that's their perception from a real world corporate job. Typically we are asking for less gray area in the contract and more black and white language.

tyfabes

I'm really hoping service starts before 2014. Gotta put my CP to good use!