rickair7777

They're hoping sunk cost fallacy will kick in if they can just keep them on the hook long to get on line, or maybe get a line.

I doubt it but if they do I can guarantee it will be "split the difference", not matching the big boyz.

CordovaCA

I'm not sure pulling a 180 on a new hire class 1 month later in the midst of training will help attrition. I agree the snap up language was weak. Was/could be terrible timing come Sept when others will be getting full retro in a few months.

Clearly they wanted to keep us in line with others. Let's hope they do the right thing. Seems management is actively trying to better relations with the pilot group. 340 would be a huge stride in showing their commitment. I'm cautiously optimistic about September.

LonesomeSky

If they give us an early raise, a raise not required by our CBA, the decision would be made at the highest levels. This is something that would need to be approved by Ben, Shane, and the BOD. Then, they'd contact the union and begin discussions. It's not likely that middle management is leaking this stuff to a new hire ground school before Ben announces it company-wide. It's more likely that someone misunderstood management's double-speak about our 2024 snap-up and talked themselves into believing that we"ll get an unexpected raise in September.

Av8rRr

Why would the company give us a raise outside of what our NC negotiated for us? Attrition is high, but Southwest pays less and people are still going there. Yes, I understand they have high attrition as well. Point is, nobody will stay at Alaska until they add more bases and unfortunately now negotiate a new contract. This snap up language is very evident of what our contract entails. Time to look at what everyone voted yes for and ask why? Looking at these other contracts, it’s mind boggling just how quickly we fell behind.

9mikemike

Tweedle dumb and tweedle dumber have perfected the art of talking without saying anything. The little old gossipy instructor group turn that nothing into something and then pilots in training magnify it…Pilot contracts impact profitability and stock price…..Overpaying us has to be sold to wall street first….Last I heard the talking heads say they were going to bring costs down,period..

All Bizniz

I do agree that it's probably some management doublespeak, deliberately or otherwise, that is fueling this rumor, but a pay raise outside of the contract wouldn't be unprecedented.

It would rustle some feathers, but didn't AA's CEO having read the tea leaves, went against the wishes of the Wall Street crowd and gave the pilot's a unilateral raise to match the other legacies a few years ago?

All Bizniz

To be brutally honest, the "yes" vote was for what was asked for based on the AS pilot polls (Pay, Scope, QOL, Reserve Rules, 401K, FO slope, etc).

We settled our contract first, with that as our NC's main frame of reference and the rates we got, as I understand it, were similar to what the other airlines' MEC were talking about at the time.

Has anyone ever thought of the possibility that the Delta NC cleverly (I don't blame them) used the negotiated rates that we got, as leverage to win the great rates that they did?

I mean, in this pilot friendly period we're in, pattern bargaining could be used just as much to argue for the traditional rate differential over the "lower tier" airlines, as it has always been used to keep up with your traditional peers, right?

And before anyone gets their panties in a bunch, I mean "lower tier" not from the pilots perspective of skill, experience, and professionalism, etc, but rather the industry categorization, i.e, legacies and/or market share; vs LCC, ULCC, etc.. Yeah, yeah, Alaska is known as a legacy... but it's an odd duck (Hawaiian too), being so in name, not nature, one could argue..

ReluctantEskimo

This caste system mentality that some Alaska pilots have needs to end.

LJCub

I'm not sure why this still needs to be repeated but our $306 did not influence the upcoming $343 and soon thereafter $360. Based on the votes ( and the decision to not even vote), AA and UA pilots soundly rejected those numbers and a contract even close to ours.

There is a huge difference between pattern bargaining and just simply being left far behind hoping the company increases the pay rate because the difference is so vast, it's actually in their best interest to do something.

Who would've thought in this pilot friendly environment, especially considering how far behind we were, we are in a position realistically where if the company offers us a non CBA obligated raise that is 5-10% below our peers, some of our pilots will gladly cheer and thank the company.

Hopefully between now and 2025, we learn our worth and vote accordingly so we don't get in this position yet again

LonesomeSky

I think an early pay raise is possible but highly unlikely. Yes, there's attrition, and pilot recruiting is slow, but they're still filling ground schools and running the airline smoothly. As a homeowner, when do you pay to replace your roof? A slum lord waits until the roof starts leaking and the city threatens condemnation. Alaska's roof isn't leaking yet. After reporting some healthy Q2 numbers, management is literally out on vacation. The Seattle Times hasn't run a negative Alaska story in over a year. I doubt pilot raises are on anyone's radar.

I don't mean to slam our management. I think they run a good airline, but they have three major flaws IMO:

1) They don't hire enough outsiders to fill leadership positions which makes them blind to opportunities and causes an entrenched Alaska "We're better than everyone because we come to work early in the morning and care about metrics" groupthink. There's so much more to running a service-based company than morning ops meetings and financial mathematics, but management can't see it because they all think the same way. Any outside ideas are shunned.

2) They're too risk-averse. The prime example is Virgin America. It cost VX's investors roughly $900 million to go from nothing but an office in NYC to running a profitable airline with valuable gates and slots in our nation's most lucrative airports. Why didn't Alaska do it themselves? Alaska could have done what VX did when VX did, and it would've been so much cheaper for Alaska because they already ran an airline. Why did they spend $4 billion to buy Virgin instead of spending less than $900 million to build out their own network? Alaska could've built what VX did, when VX did, for half of the cost, but they didn't because they were too chicken. Instead, they end up paying 4 times more and going through the pain of a merger. It makes me wonder what opportunities they're missing out on right now.

3) They don't care enough about branding. Alaska has arguably the worst brand of any airline in the United States. Let's start with the Eskimo logo. They're afraid to use the logo to promote the airline because left-leaning people might think Alaska's logo is racist, but on the other hand, they're afraid to ditch the Eskimo logo because it'll upset right-leaning rural customers. In classic Alaska management fashion, rather than make a hard decision, they punt. They keep the logo but don't use it except on the tail of the plane. And the name "Alaska"... Good god... It's so stupid. Spirit has better brand recognition than Alaska Airlines. People know that Spirit serves the entire country and they believe they're getting rock-bottom prices when they fly Spirit. What does a leisure traveler in Kansas City think about Alaska Airlines? Do they think we're the people from that bush pilot reality TV show? Do they know about our cheese plate with a selection of the finest cheeses the Pacific Northwest has to offer? Customers don't know who we are and management doesn't care. I don't know why the BOD tolerates the situation year after year, decade after decade.

A potential Alaska pilot needs to look at the Washington State Ferry system (the ferry boats that service Puget Sound) to get an accurate idea of their career progression at Alaska Airlines. Alaska grows at the same rate as the city of Seattle and surrounding metro areas. We add seats to our routes at the same rate as the Washington Ferry adds seats to the Seattle to Bremerton line. If that career progression and stability sounds good to you, then Alaska is the place to be.