I'm not an obstacle. Help me out here because I've asked this numerous times with no good answer. What exactly is our leverage? You said it yourself. It's a seniority driven system. You aren't portable. Newguy himself says even with his less than 4 yrs he can't fathom starting over. Latest podcast said attrition is 50 this year, the highest they've seen. Ok, 50 out of 3000? A full 1.6% of the list left? That's hardly a concerning amount. Sun Country didn't get a nice TA from the goodness of their hearts, they got a TA because they lost something like 33% of their list in 12 months. The bleeding had to stop and the TA came so that ended up being their leverage.


What's our leverage? It isn't attrition. And so far, it isn't attracting pilots. People will come and those with anything more than a couple years are staying. The <4 yr crowd is the one mostly leaving, and lets be honest, they would leave even if we had a new contract. You can't fix AS structural issues: single fleet, 5 west coast bases, domestic for life, slow retirement figures. These 4 reasons ALONE will cause people to leave this place for the big 3, regardless of how good a contract we have. If you are young with low longevity, why stick around here when Delta, United, and American can offer far more fleets, bases, equipment, and retirement figures? A contract has nothing to do with those structural issues. That's why I don't believe the pilots in that attrition video. They left AS for these structural issues, because what the big 3 offer them here can't be found here (asides from the contract). A huge reason is retirements and and movement. Even if we had an awesome contract, as a new hire you'll still be in the bottom 1/3 in 10 yrs on this seniority list.


And I'm not buying any of this 500 bypassing FOs as an argument. People bypass all the time and for their own personal reasons. I bypassed to stay in New York and upgraded only when they closed it. Delta and United have good reserve rules and yet they've had probationary Captains or in the recent case of United, unfilled narrowbody Captain vacancies. At AS, I still see senior CAs bid reserve on purpose. It's the only reason I hold a regular or OF line is enough guys above me bid reserve on purpose. And I will say, I've seen less senior CAs bid reserve now that the Rsv P/U days off MOU was killed. Those guys that used to bid reserve saw no way to make the extra money, so back they went to regular lines.


Strike? You really mean to tell me that the NMB will release or PEB will allow Alaska, a state namesake airline, a sole service to many city pairs (ANC to anywhere Hawaii, ANC to bunch of Alaska) essential service markets, and bring that to a halt via a strike? Changing gears, if you are mgt why should you give one inch? What's in it for you? The future here is the 178 seat MAX9. Do you really think 178 seats are flying to SE Alaska or any of our other smaller airport markets? If you were mgt, you would put E175s all across the network into these SE airports, secure large amounts of regional flying throughout the west coast and midcon network, and then and only then come to the table for scope. Because - yet again - what's in it for you? Why wouldn't you delay and stall and secure what you want before locking in scope which restricts your ability with regional airlines?

I have never gotten a good answer to any of the above so if you would know or can offer a perspective, it would be appreciated.