I get those e-mails all the time for years, I wouldn’t worry about it.

I do agree that there is lots of room for improvement in our contract but there are some myths out there that I don’t think are as huge a deal as some on here make it out to be once you understand how it works. You can cherry pick bad provisions or good provisions from every airline contract and make yourself feel better or worse about your situation at-will, but if you are going to evaluate if you should come here or not you need to take the entirety of the contract into account.

As far as days off go, your day off starts at a specific time which is 4 hours after the end of your contactability perIod on your last day. Know that you can and will be used until that time. Alaska has contactability periods starting as early as 2am and as late as 6pm. Those on here proposing calendar days off probably come from airlines operating in one time zone or with operations that shut down after 11pm. If you start your zone at 6pm is it realistic to expect to be off at midnight? What about the day you come back? Should you start your zone at midnight, or do you expect to be able to be off most of your first day at work? So you start at 1700 on day 1 Andrew end at midnight on day 5 which effectively means that if you aren’t used by day 4 you can just go home. That sounds like about 3 full days of reserve. Sure, we could negotiate that, but that would come with a high negotiating cost



You can’t always do it but most pilots proffer to fly trips on the last day that are advantageous to them. If you are on the 1200-0200 zone but you end up with a trip that ends at 1800 on the last day you don’t have to stick around.

When I commuted to reserve I bid as late a zone as possible, usually 1700-0700 or 1800-0800. That gave me all day on day 1 to get to base. I would then look for trips to proffer for that either got me in on the last day as early as possible, or if that wasn’t possible, a trip that got me back with 2 or 3 days of availability. So if I was available for 5 I would only profer for 3 and 2 day trips. The next day, being good for 4, I would profer for 4 or 2 or 1 day trips. The Key is that you don’t want to be good for 1 going into your last day since that means you will probably end up flying until the end of your zone, or by the time you figured out that you weren’t it would be too late to do anything anyway. There are lots of 2 and 3 day pairings that fit the late zones on day 1 but get into SEA at a reasonable hour on day 2 or 3.


Having been based at and commuted to every base except SFO as a junior FO...

SEA - Pros: widest variety/availability of flying. The most variety of zones that allow you to choose the best zone for you. Most reserve lines, which increases the chances that there will be a reserve line with the days off that you need to minimize trading. Good availability of crash pads. Train comes right to the airport, greatly increasing the prospects for car-less crash-padding.

Cons: Reserves cover everything, sim, MX test flights, etc. If things are falling apart at AS they are falling apart in SEA so if you are on reserve you are flying 20-30 hours/month more than your counter-parts at the other-bases (no idea about SFO)

PDX: Pros: It’s PDX, better airport (parking situation, food, etc.) than any of the other bases. PDX has historically had the lowest sick call rate of all the bases which equals less flying for reserves. Even on bad we days, things are usually running pretty smooth at PDX. PDX pilots are not qualified to fly SE Alaska so that eliminates a lot of flights you are able to cover when transiting SEA. Max-train goes right to the airport which expands crash pad possibilities.

Cons: Not many open trips so very often your line is your line. The lack of open trips on reserve also mean that it is more difficult to game the system in a way that gets you off early on your last day. More than half of PDX pairings report before 0800 and a good number start before 0600 so if you are PDX based expect to be flying AM. Also, almost all reserve zones are early AM zones.

LAX: Pros: Depending on where you are commuting to, your commuting options are usually vast. Everybody flies to LAX from everywhere. Red eyes East are also very commuter friendly.

Cons: SNA. When you are junior/reserve you will end up in SNA at the end of a trip right after the last departures. Many pairings end with Mexico turns so that you are clearing customs on your own time. It’s not as bad as when all our international went through Bradley, but it is still something to consider. Same small base problems (lack of trips, etc.) I mentioned under PDX. The big one for me with LAX was crash pad, I don’t/won’t hot bunk so it was a challenge to find my own room in a descent part of town. I think a car is mandatory if you are LAX based.

ANC: Pros: Hawaii flying is junior. Good amount of crash pads due to the number of commuters from other airlines. Ahhh, it’s ANC, that is either a positive to you or a negative. Since new hires aren’t being forced any longer I will presume it’s a positive since you are considering bidding it. Now that I think of it, since you presumably bid ANC you might prefer OME or OTZ...those day trips are senior.

Cons: Small base. ANC problems, 2 feet of snow and ice on your commuter car when you get in after being gone for 2 weeks. You go to FAI a lot. You would think that 25 flights a day in the summer between ANC-SEA would make for an easy commute...it doesn’t.