The SWAPA Ride Report: Market Based Cash Balance Plan Update, Vacation Shifts, & Contract Q&A

This week, Communications Committee member Tony Mulhare updates the membership on the Market Based Cash Balance Plan as well as the upcoming transfer window from Empower to Schwab accounts.  He also continues the deep dive into vacation shifts and the timing required for those shifts. Several pilot questions about Legal Duty, Ground Transportation in lieu of a double deadhead as well as a recurring question on LRO vs LCO are also discussed.

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Transcript

This is the SWAPA Ride Report for Friday 19 July 2024. 

The SWAPA Ride Report is your source for news, information, and updates regarding your Collective Bargaining Agreement.  I’m Tony Mulhare from SWAPA Communications, and here’s this week’s report. 

Let’s start this week with an update on the Market Based Cash Balance Plan.  SWAPA is expecting funds to hit the Empower accounts on or about 1 August – remember that the implementation agreement called for the Company to hold those funds – 1% of your monthly earnings – since the Contract was ratified.  Over the last six months, those funds have been accruing and they will be deposited into the Empower accounts soon.    Captain Damian Jeanette will be producing some educational material that you should be looking for as we lead up to August first.  If you don't remember all the details related to Market Based Cash Balance plans, go back and look in the 401K committee page on swapa.org for the educational material that was produced as part of the contract education push. 

This next topic gets super confusing pretty quickly as we are talking about accounts from different entities that have similar names, so pay attention.  The Market Based Cash Balance Plan funds will be posted to the Southwest Airlines Market-Based Cash Balance Plan in August. Pilots’ profit-sharing monies are held in funds in the Southwest Airlines Retirement Savings Plan. Both plans are  kept at Empower and are on www.freedomtoretire.com . Those are completely different from your Southwest Airlines Pilots Association Retirement accounts with Schwab.  The one time special transfer window for pilots younger than 59 and a half is about to open.  The 401K committee sent an email this week with  important details and some caveats for those of you with self-directed brokerage accounts,  we highly recommend using the QR code at the bottom of that email to contact Schwab directly about any mechanics involved with the plan to plan transfer.  If you are older than 59 and a half, you can execute a rollover from Empower to Schwab once a year.  Again, see the 401K Committee pages for details. 

And now a note from our Scheduling and Analytics Committee, The September vacancy is open until Wednesday, July 24th.  

This is the vacancy that determines your vacation bidding domicile for all rounds of 2025 vacations.  Awards will still be processed under the old contract bidding rules, but with the new contract’s vacation week distribution.  Also, floating vacations will no longer be awarded for 2025. Instead, Crew Planning will be putting those weeks – 2 per base & seat per week of the year (with some holiday week exceptions)- in the Company inventory for trading, which will commence November 1st  

Ok, now for some questions the Contract Admin team fielded this week: 

First up, a pilot asked; “I bid open time over my RT block, but a more junior pilot was awarded the trip, why? “  

The answer here is that when you are Bidding over any paid status, like vacation, your bid is ranked under any pilot bidding in or out of base that isn’t on a paid status over any of the days of a trip you are bidding. See CBA Section 11.Delta for the reference here. 

Another question, this one specific to Legal Duty Leave in section 17 Golf.:. Does scheduling need to remove my trips as soon as I send in my jury duty notification?  

1. No, the new language states they will pull pairings, training sequences or reserve blocks 3 days prior to the start of the legal duty leave or 2 days prior to the affected trip , whichever is earlier.  

Let’s look at a very common question that Contract Admin fields very frequently... I was reassigned on my last day and that leg blocked in over 2 hours late, aren’t I due Late Return Override (LRO)?  

You are only due LRO for an original leg that comes in 2 or more hours late, on your last day. If you were reassigned, you are due 100% LCO instead. I think about it this way: first I ask myself, did something on my board change?  If that’s a yes, then I look for Leg Change Override.  If that was no, that last leg was on my original trip, then I look for Late Return Override if my block in was 2 or more hours after originally scheduled.  Section 2.Juliet in the CBA is always good reading as there are lots of new overrides in Contract 2020 and keeping them all straight can be challenging. 

Next Question: . I tried shifting my VA block from the beginning of August to the end of July, but they didn’t shift it on July 1st. Why did they say I had to shift it a month earlier?  

Let’s dive in: The language in CBA Section 14.Echo.2 is a bit tricky to grasp and our poor contract admin team patiently explained it to me about five times before I finally got it.  Since the Vacation week was shifted from August into July, the request needed to be in by June 1st so Planning would have the shift processed prior to posting and awarding the July bid lines.  Since by the time this pilot asked to shift his vacation his July bid had already beenawarded, his request was denied as the contract does not allow you to shift into a known conflict.  Clear as mud? That same scenario would also apply if he was trying to change his bid just  few days earlier in August if it would conflict with a month-to-month overlap trip that extended from the July award period into August.  However, If he was instead shifting the vacation to a later time period in August, that request wouldn’t need to be in until  July 1st, since the August bid package is released on July 4th. These scenarios are also explained on the vacation shift form on SWALife. 

Another pilot had a great question regarding bases like Las Vegas with two bid groups: If I’m in a base that has ETOPS and non-ETOPS when vacation bidding starts in September, does either group affect the order I get VA?  

1. No, vacation is awarded in seniority order by base and seat. Being in an Etops Bid Group will not change the VA awards. So in the case of Las Vegas, the overall seat seniority of the entire base drives the awards. 

That’s all I’ve got for this week‘s update  Please listen in on August 2nd, when the next version of the Ride Report will be released.   

Thanks for tuning in, and as always, Fly Safe, Fly Informed.