Alaska was my last choice but became my first as they were the only one's that offered me an interview and job offer. But to be fair, I only applied to United, American, Delta, Northwest and Alaska and my generation competed for crapshoot positions at airlines with horrible reputations, unattractive compensation and ultimately disappointing failures. Alaska seemed the right (and only) choice at the time.
Look at these and you will understand...
Continental and Eastern (subsequently failed) had notorious labor issues under Frank Lorenzo. Braniff had collapsed and market flooded with their high numbers of pilots while Pan Am and TWA were on the verge of collapse. FedEx had just absorbed Tigers so they were not hiring. Southwest and UPS Captains earned a whopping $75,000 and $56,000 per year, respectively; Alaska, $122,000. Delta exclusively hired military and the other big 4 had uncorrected vision requirements that I couldn't meet. At 20/100 uncorrected, Alaska was really my only option. Wow, have time changed...
I kept applications on file with the 'majors' until Gulf war 1 began in late '90 when all hell broke loose in our industry and all at 'big 4' furloughed until recalled in '97ish. I was a Captain by then, so starting over at the bottom of a list was not worth the risk. Then there's 911, SARS, industry bankruptcy carnage, age 65 (did I leave anything out?) which solidified my choice to stay. I was largely positive and grateful until Kasher when my attitude turned negative and remains apathetic to this day. I blame BA for what happened that day as the outcome could have been different. In fact, he told me as much when I had a chance opportunity to talk with him a couple of years ago when asked directly, "any regrets"...
Our pilot group accepted 2 paycuts in the early '90's to help the company avert bankruptcy due to rather sizable losses. We were promised that our sacrifices would be rewarded someday when and if the industry recovered. It has and still waiting...many CEO's later (Kennedy, Vecchi, Kelly, Ayer, Tildon).
What turns me off about our leadership team is their arrogance and lack of respect for this pilot group. You can read about the many grievances on this board about these issues so I won't go into detail about them. But the ultimate insult for me is being told we deserve to be #5 in hourly wage because we are #5 in size. No Ben and Brad, FU. With all of the flying this pilot group does including our many special qualifications we deserve above industry standard wage.
If you want industry leading spirit, attitude and performance than you have to pay us accordingly. After all, We collectively have paid our dues for too long to continue to be substandard.