Originally Posted by
Beta82
Perfectly stated. Who care what you call the airline. Alaska is a regional carrier. It operates mostly out of a region, the west coast. They even tout this! It does mostly regional flying dabbling in transcons and modcons. This means as a pilot you will fly mostly regional flying. It’s hard to compare it to a major airline, because that it’s not. The work rules are on par or below a regional contract. The pay (inc retirement) is the only thing approaching a Legacy/Major/ National/whatever payrates. As said above, If you come to this airline, set your expectations to the level of regional carrier with better pay and I think you will be happy.
None of this means we shouldn’t fight for better. It’s just what it is.
By this definition, SWA, JB, Spirit, Frontier, Allegiant, former VX and all narrow body flying at UAL, DAL and AA is “regional” flying. Same type of flying at all mentioned above. All mostly domestic with a little transcon/international sprinkled into the mix. You’re absolutely right in saying “who cares what you call an airline”. Pilots assign titles and categories to tickle their egos. Alaska is a financially sound airline. It is in the midsts of an acquisition/merger/SLI causing angst among the pilot group. The contract needs to be updated to match that of our peers. Every airline has it’s malcontents that will try to dissuade new hires from coming just as every airline has it’s diehard champions. The truth always lies somewhere in the middle. Alaska works for me and that’s why I came here. I’ve been able to carve out a pretty good QOL. I’m 100% behind the fight for improvements just as EVERY pilot at EVERY airline should ALWAYS be trying to improve their airline. If you want to come here as a steppingstone, do that. If you want to come here for a career, you can do that too.