jabeachum

[Mod note: new member is answering a tangential question from a ten-year old thread.]

It is true that Southwest crew members get paid by the "trip," but a "trip" for SWA crew members is 243 nautical miles, or about 55 minutes of flight time; not the entire flight.

aaronp84

Pretty sure WN pilots are on salary, regardless of trip. Could be wrong though. FAs are paid by the hour, and only once the parking brake is released, which is typical across the industry.

rsteinmetz70112

If I understand correctly from my friends who work for SWA most if not all unionized employees receive a minimum based on seniority. That would limit the amount of cost SW could reduce in the near term.

nachosdelux

it's complicated. They are paid by the "trip" which is a term unique to Southwest, but it is basically an hourly rate, when the aircraft is away from the gate.

They do get a monthly minimum guarantee regardless of how much (little) they work. they get overtime if they exceed this

Each work day/pairing is also calculated by a couple of other metrics (time away from base, duty rig, min pay per day, etc) and the day/pairing pays the highest of all the calculations.

hat attack

Above is not correct

nachosdelux

source? please correct my mistake(s) if you know better.

NoStressHere

What part is not correct?

How are we supposed to know what you are talking about? And if not correct, can you provide the correct information for us?

GoldenArgosy

I will try to make this as factual and easy to understand as possible, because it is slightly complicated.

As someone else started, flight attendants AND pilots work on a "Trips for Pay" (TFP) system. A trip is (as was previously stated) 243 miles or about 55 minutes of flying.

To convert "TFP" into "Dollars per hour," multiply the TFP amount by 1.15.

A FA making $30.00/TFP is making about $34.50/hr
A FA making $40.00/TFP is making about $46.00/hr.
A FA making $50.00/TFP is making about $57.50/hr... etc etc.

If a flight runs longer than normal... you've pushed back and sat on the runway for an hour, you're taking the long, scenic route around bad weather, you have crazy strong headwinds.... Regardless of why, if the flight runs longer, the crew gets overfly.... thats .10/TFP every 6 minutes longer the flight runs. So even though it is mileage based, it is basically hourly.

Pay starts once the aircraft pushes back... pay stops once the aircraft blocks in. A three day trip is usually worth between 20 and 25 trips for pay.

Flight attendants are scheduled with a guaranteed number of hours a month. Every FA is guaranteed a certain number of hours. However, If the flight attendants gets rid of a trip... for example - giving a trip away to another FA... the FA giving away loses those hours and the FA picking up gains those hours at their regular pay rate.

So yes, the flight attendant contract may say that flight attendants are "guaranteed X number of hours a month," but if a flight attendant gives all of their trips away for a month, they are going to end up with zero hours.

At the same time, if a FA picks up a ton of extra trips from other FAs on their days off, they are going to get that many additional hours over their guarantee at their regular straight time rate.

"Reserve" is an entirely different system. A flight attendant on "reserve" is also guaranteed X numbers a month. They are basically "on call," and ready to cover sick calls, irregular operations, etc etc. A flight attendant on reserve may sit at home if they are not needed and then they ARE getting paid to NOT fly. On reserve, flight attendants are guaranteed their monthly minimum pay whether they are needed or not. If they fly more than their guarantee, they get paid however much more they fly at their regular straight pay rate.

There are opportunities for time and a half, etc... but those are all different situations and too many circumstances to possibly cover every one.

I hope this helps.

ftnoob

Thanks for the interesting insight.

Why 1.15?