Originally Posted by
9mikemike
Honesty is good….I will revise from zero to 0.00000001245.
It is a point that has been made frequently in my 24 years by Alaska marketing…We are a Seattle company with Seattle customers.
When all the genius pilot airline execs go on about all the ways we should grow and all the bases we should have they neglect to consider that none of that is possible without O&D traffic. We simply are unknown west of Seattle and east of Spokane…Breeze and Avelo are approaching greater name recognition than Alaska…A tidbit from marketing that I found disturbing to say the least
When I was hired it APPEARED that Alaska wanted to expand their brand beyond PNW to the lower 48. Base at JFK, bought a company with greater national name recognition than Alaska, going into Deep South cities like ATL, CLT, BNA, MSY, etc. Then came “Most West Coast” circa 2018. Because I didn’t see any marketing in these areas, I posted on the Water Cooler, “Are yall gonna tell people in these cities who you are so they’ll fly on Alaska instead of say Delta?” The response was literally “We have limited marketing funds and we’re using those funds to pursue the Cali market.” In effect.. “No”. And then when they got REAL nervous about Delta marching on SEA, they abandoned Cali and routed everything they could to SEA. Now, years later, after shutting down JFK as a base, throttling back LAX - HI routes, dropping. SFO - BNA, and LAX - JFK… we have “Most West Coast 2.0” SAN - JFK redeyes, and I noticed SEA - BNA redeyes.
And again, most pointing this out aren’t complaining. It’s a good job at a good company. But plans voiced by a recruiter to a potential new hire have decent chance of drastically changing before they finish a cup of coffee. So, if one is being honest with a recruit, it’s best to let them know that the only thing reliably stable at Alaska is SEA and change. EVERYTHING else is optional, changeable, and/or can be farmed out to OneWorld