KnockKnock

the rates are just one tree in this forest.. there are a lot of trees I don't like. This is just the one we're talking about here.

Carebear

Your rate is tied to your work rules. If you’re getting overrides in other areas, your W2 is higher because of the rules, not the rate. Why do you think spirit pilots make way more than you do and only make a few dollars more an hour?

dracir1

The one thing that I noticed at F9 given our last contract...

When we gave up line bidding for PBS, we lost most of the ability to improve our lines. We can still drop (to a limited amount) and trade w/ others, but picking up trips is largely on what's available in open time (which is decreased dramatically given the efficiency of PBS). Our company doesn't offer premium much anymore (due to change in company policy) so basically, for middling seniority pilots in particular, what you are awarded from PBS is what you fly. Obtaining lots of "overrides" is mainly dependent on delays or odd-ball situations that just happen to fall the right way.

I'd be wary of forgoing pay rate for a work rule override/benefits that, given a company change in policy or philosophy, becomes rarely offered. And from what I've seen of your TA, it's not on par w/ Spirit.

20Fathoms

He’s at Delta. He’s not a right back, maybe a midfielder, and he’s right about pattern bargaining. I hope you guys raised the bar and knocked it out of the park, but what you do affects us all whether you spell it correctly or not.

OldPhrog46

The short answer is yes to Alaska being a destination airline. It's also a matter of one's life variables. Every pilot has different needs and all of our backgrounds are different. I think the VX pilots brought some life into this airline, and also shined a bright light into some dark corners making way for some good changes.
Do you want to fly a wide body aircraft? If yes, then take Alaska, Southwest, JetWho, Spirit, Frontier, and Sun Country off your list. If you want to live on the West Coast and don't want to fly red-eyes then kiss JetWho good-bye again. Where do you want to live? I think that should be the biggest question for anyone in this market today. Right now is the great American pilot re-shuffling. I've had buddies switch from legacy to legacy within a year. One went from Atlas to Delta to United in the course of a year and several leaving JetBlue to Delta. Every airline has it's pain points and none are perfect.

Nucflash

For me personally, one huge part of it would be does the airline run well operationally. All in all, the Alaska TA looks pretty good, especially if you enjoy living in WA / OR. But if the place is a crapshow operationally and you get headaches going to work every trip, it might be still worth looking elsewhere. So how has it been recently?

nene

All airlines have been a relative shietze show operationally lately due to over committing on sales, training/hiring backlogs, ATC limitations, and a plethora of issues involved in trying to get an industry spooled back to 100+% of pre pandemic levels from 50%.

rickair7777

What he said. Also retirements are jacking up legacy staffing, which in turn is jacking up LCC staffing. That's probably just life in the big city for the next 3-5 years.

TyWebb

Did you all do paper line bidding? From what I hear from everyone I know at Alaska they hate bidding because it's such an arduous process and the only people that want to keep it is the senior guys that don't have to go through the phone book every month as they get exactly what they want. PBS is efficient and aids many pilots to place their parameters to get what they want out of a line that works for their lives. Now with the TA reserve rules, all or nothing bids and else start new can be utilized so if you have a lot of life to plan around and if that doesn't give you a line, one can easily accept reserve and accomplish said monthly obligations.

I see you point but It's odd you spin this as a negative because it's more efficient, and your reasonings seem from someone that lives in base and is more senior than average.

tzskipper1

TW,

Just to add some additional background to the line bidding vs. PBS; although AS has the conflict "benefit" of dropped trips with line bidding, there is (this is the important distinction) NO pay protection for trip(s) dropped as a result of a conflict. As a result, if a line bidders schedule's value drops below guarantee as the result of a conflict, in most cases (I believe there may be a few exceptions) the pilot has to go through the process of picking up opentime through "Step Trading" or else risk having flying assigned to create the same result.

This has lead most to ask, what is the point of line bidding in this situation? From friends I've heard from, it's f'd up as it currently exists.

S