ImperialxRat

It’s possible. Things change slowly here, and I don’t hear it talked about as something that people really care about. If it’s important to you, and you live near a domicile for JetBlue, UPS, Hawaiian, Frontier?, Allegiant?, or whoever already has that policy in place, I would probably shoot for working for them.

Snapshot217

Good to know, thanks for the reply. That’s the thing, I’m PNW born and bred, don’t plan on moving anywhere, and would rather not commute the rest of my life, so Alaska would normally be my #1 choice. But the beard thing is a pretty important factor for me. Shame that US airlines seem stuck on 20th century grooming standards when airlines throughout the rest of the world have gotten with the times and the whole oxygen mask argument has been debunked. Atlas, with their new PDX base and beard allowances, is looking like a better bet…. But congrats on the new contract, looks like good stuff happening for you folks 👍

echelon

You're letting your facial hair make career decisions for you?

Snapshot217

No. I’m making career decisions based on how I want to live my life and what degree of control that I’m willing to let an employer have over me.

Note: Other young people who are weighing being a pilot vs a software engineer, doctor, going into finance or real estate, or any other number of high-paying professions that comparatively allow them a lot more personal freedoms are weighing such choices too. We’re facing a major pilot shortage in this industry. Perhaps we should consider abandoning antiquated traditions that no longer serve a purpose and only serve to dispel would-be aviators.

Excargodog

Everybody ought to have some hill they are willing to die on. Wearing a beard certainly wouldn’t be mine, but you do you…

VirginEskimo

Beards will be authorized just in time for them to go completely out of fashion! That’s the way the airlines work!

Jetlikespeed

i don’t know if UFO craft time counts as turbine time I’ll have to email DM and see if it’s cool

Akutan Bandit

Great post.

When Alaska changed from boots and jackets to penny loafers and epaulets the culture changed in many insidious ways. What is mandated for the pilots is representative of a fairy tale living inside of managements heads, and implementing that vision is everything.

Observing the trend in culture is more important than many other variables.

Sculprit

Could anyone give a breakdown of the training footprint?

Airbus vs Boeing timeline.
How long is each section? ...indoc, systems, etc
How to prepare before hand if anything at all?
Quality of training?

GoodJet

I trained in 2018 so it's been a minute. I don't think the footprint has changed a lot for 737 initial. Indoc was about a week. We they moved to systems and the emergency equipment after a couple of weeks which I think had a systems test we moved to a static trainer for procedures. We then moved to simulator training. All of training was wrapped up in two months. We stayed at a hotel about a 15 minute drive from the training center. Which was not in a very good area but had a reasonable restaurant and there was a pretty good Mexican place next door. There was also a Safeway that was a pretty long walk away.

I wouldn't prepare at all. You will just hurt yourself. If you apply yourself and study the training should be challenging but not difficult.

The quality of training at AS depends on your instructor. I've had good ones and bad ones. Overall the training is good but specific events have been some of the worst in my career.