Originally Posted by
Arctichicken
We are just line pilots and none of us were in the room when the decision was made, however there are some facts to consider. VX board of directors decided to sell the airline. Why? There must be a myriad of reasons but one major factor was that VX wasn't a revenue generator. Initially, there were 3 bidders for VX-Alaska, jetBlue, and Delta. Delta pulled out early due to reasons unknown to me but I'm going to guess it was due to DOT/DOJ constraints. I don't know about you but jetBlue doesn't look like a very appealing dance partner but to each his own. Who is this "young suitor" that you are referring to? The only two who came to the party were: the middle-aged, balding guy with the greasy hair, with money and the young, average looking guy, who just gets by financially. The third person would have been a greaseball Wall Street slime ball who probably would have dismantled VX and sold it off piece by piece. That's just my guess. I'm not saying that Alaska saved VX pilots from demise but I'm also curious as to who this young stud is because apparently, he never showed up to the party.
JetBlue my friend, JetBlue...
Any good business plan has several exit strategy and the one you ultimately choose will depend on how things unfold once you are up and running.
VX board chose to sell and from an investor's perspective, they made out like bandits.... good for them.
JetBlue might not be an appealing dance partner for you, an Alaska pilot, but for a VX pilot pre-merger, it wasn't even close the appeal that JetBlue had over AS.
As airlines go, financially they are in a good position, we have the same fleet type, they have pref-bid, their pay-rate was better than VX with QOL provisions much better than AS and ALPA is also on property with contract negotiations underway, etc, etc.. I think I could go on and on..