Typical Schedules
 

Would you all mind posting some info on what typical schedules look like over at Alaska these days? What could someone junior, mid, and senior hold in regards to days off, commutability, trip length, etc. Also how low can you drop your credit? Is it even possible to drop trips? Thanks for the info, couldn't find anything recent.

the lines are $hit

It's a tough crowd around these here APC parts. Might want to ask a friend or someone who knows someone at Alaska.

No PBS yet, just line bidding for now. PBS in the hands of this management group could further corrode the QOL of this pilot group but I digress already.
Lines range anywhere from 18-13(?) days off. If you are in the middle of the pack, plan on around 15 days off with about 83 hours of credit on an average. There are 1 to 4 day trips. Lines can range any where from 75 to 93(?) hours of credit depending on if it's a flex up month. Per the contract, there can only be so many flex up months. The efficient 4 day trips can pay upwards of 25 hours and the crappy ones just shy of 20 hours. The pairings and lines are nothing to write home about. Most of them are mediocre at best. Then there are 3 days trips that pay just over 11 hours and they are usually commutable on both ends. The efficient 25+ hour 4 days, which goes pretty senior, start early and end late meaning that if you are a commuter, it can easily turn into be a 6 day trip unless you enjoy sleeping in the pilot ghetto lounge. Most lines are a hodge podge of turd, just like open flying lines. The optimizer builds lines like how an inexperience PBS bidder would bid. They are all over the map. With the exception of few very senior lines, a typical line consists of both early and late checkins, hardly any pure weekend off lines.....basically, no consistency whatsoever. Also, be prepared to fly your share of allnighters and redeyes. There's quite of few of those.
Trip trading is pretty much nonexistent due to a multitude of MOUs and lack of reserve coverage. The company took a MOU (+/- 4 hour rule) that was intended to free up trip trading and made it into a rule thereby giving crew scheduling more power to deny trip trades. Crew scheduling in turn blame Crew Access and claim no fault. Sorry, I digress once again. Anyway, expect to fly your line if you are junior and even lucky enough to hold a line. Get ready to immerse yourself in Crew Access, world's crappiest scheduling tool. Think caveman era! If you are on reserve, plan on flying on most of the days you are on call if you are based in SEA. Advice: Never do crew scheduling a favor because they will never repay you. Also, know the contract, especially section 25 so that you won't get screwed. They do mess with new hires by lying to you to move airplanes. I can't emphasize enough how important knowing the contract is! My friends at LAX are not abused as much, so I've been told. Summer and holiday seasons are obviously the worst times to be on reserve. You get 12 days off guaranteed on reserve, 79 hours pay guarantee (short call) and 75 (long call). Crew scheduling may sound nice over the phone but they will violate the contract to move airplanes. Prepare to "fly 'n grieve". You've been warned.
You can drop trips, contractually, to the monthly minimum for that month. Again, due to a plethora of convoluted MOUs and lack of reserve coverage, you'll most likely not be able to drop any of your trips, especially on weekends. I've been here almost 2 years and I haven't been able to drop a single trip. You can drop trips below the monthly minimum by giving away your trips to another pilot. That's about the only way to drop trips around here.
I believe more people commute than live in base, at least that's what I've been told. I've commuted all my life when I was at the regionals. I can't blame people for commuting to work since we have one of the highest cost of living here on the west coast. Being junior with crappy schedules, plan on being gone away from a home quite a bit. I hear LAX is a great base with a great group of pilots and reserves don't fly as much as SEA. Either way, it sucks to commute especially on reserve. Perhaps Alaska is a place that you can enjoy and plant your roots. I'll be departing here soon and you'll move up a number which is always a good thing. Good luck and have fun with a great pilot group!

What's in it for the company to have low credit, crap trips, and junk schedules? I'm not looking forward to those style of schedules.

I'm fairly new and thus far, I'm quite unimpressed as you can tell. I'm not smart or experienced enough to give any sound advice but I do know that this place isn't for me. I've said it several times, it breaks my heart to see a once great airline crumble piece by piece due to lack of vision and leadership of this management. They posses the power, money, intelligence, and the tools to make this airline great once again but I'm afraid their greed and narcissism is blinding them. They lack the slightest hint of leadership. I've never seen anything like it. When will they learn that managing a corporation can't be done solely through spreadsheets and data? Clearly, they are too busy counting their stock and money. I understand that they too are BOD's puppets but aren't we all human beings with a soul? My faith in God keeps me in check and we as human beings are held accountable for our actions thereby no one will be exempt. It's disheartening to see that corporate America can do whatever they wish in the name of business. I get a good laugh when these guys preach the "Alaska family" mentality. Hey BT, BM, TK, JH, CZ et al, you can't just talk the talk but have to walk the walk also. The walking dead.....truly pathetic!

Just had a new AS guy, (<1yr), in the jump last week.
Schedules came up. He said he was working more and away from home the same amount as at his previous regional, QX.

No surprise there.

ASA and QX same management for all intents and purposes

Commit to Compete aka race to the bottom

It's no wonder QX has a shortage of pilots willing to work @QX

It really boils down to this..We are a small regional airline..That flies around the clock..Once you leave the north/south structure we just dont have a route map that allows decent schedule building. We mostly go once a day to the midcon and east coast destinations. Couple that to very weak schedule language, no min day credit and low value east west flying and you get what we have. PBS will not help because we have nothing to build pairings out of....simple math

A lot of disatisfaction for pilots comes when they left one regional airline for another. That cant be helped

Looking at AS lines it becomes very clear that there must not be many commuters ! Even if you get 13-15 days off, for a commuter those are more like 9-11 since I would have to come in the day before and leave the day after !
I'm surprised that the "college degree" educated Pilot group at AS is ok with that because even if you live in base that is total **** ! Just sayin...😉

wait...did you say no min day credit? Tell me your joking...that's basic as basic gets.

There is a minimum AVERAGE of 5 hours per DUTY PERIOD. So 24/30 hour layovers can kill productivity.

The all nighters to the east coast touch 3 calandar days and pay around 11 hours.

Yes, that is what I said...As clarified by my bro. Kills productivity, kills pairing construction, kills commutability...We have voted yes for everything we have...keep that in mind!!

W. O. W. !!!

Close
 

With the exception of the 5-hour average per duty period- That was given away to the Company, by Union leadership, prior to member ratification

But heck, the Alaska pilots probably would have voted it away anyway, just like everything else.

Yes we would have!

Sooo... They suck?

Same with us here at JB.

Time to merge!

Gup

I think it'll happen in the next year or two.

So smart. After making Alaska pay more than 1 billion more for virgin to merge a few years later...

As much as I'd like to see a merger, that is a good point. Run up the debt for your competition, then incur said debt. Meanwhile, VA shareholders make out like bandits.

Should have been a three-way from the start.

Gup

Agreed completely. Perfect compliments on route structure

Dropping trips below monthly minimum
 

How easy/likely reliable is this? If you are about mid/range in seniority could you reliably count on being able to drop 1 or 2 trips per month? At VX we have a "tradeboard" where we can post trips for others to pick up, but it is relatively rare (as far as I know) for others to pick up

If it's a day trip or productive 2-day I think it would get picked up. I don't think you would have luck dropping a 4-day

I routinely drop my line down by posting trips to the AK bulletin board. I can usually get rid of one and two day trips and I find the two day transcons are pretty easy to drop- even the all nighters. Not as much luck with 3-4 days but occasionally it works. Weekends a bit difficult too, but occasionally.

Is it possible for somebody to post an Alaska bid packet?

Also, does anybody know the typical average credit per day?

Two questions:

1) How quickly can a new hire get SEA?
2) Will Alaska raise their (relatively) terrible pay soon? If so, can/will they match SWA? Big 3?

Oh boy.....

For crying out....
 

Dude. A modicum of research would yield an answer.

Arbitrators to issue award between early October and November (tbd due to antipated Company delay tactics)

Regarding trio trading. A trade is never denied due to an MOU. Mou's merely facilitate a trade that would have otherwise been denied, likely due to lack of adequate reserve coverage.

Saying your trip was denied because of an MOU just means you don't actually understand what the MOU does, or how truly ****ty our reserve coverage is

Um... :rolleyes:
Latest class: eight out of twelve were assigned SEA. That is NOT an issue. The only base you cannot get is PDX.
Oct. 15th is arbitrator's award. Expect a $30-ish per hour raise for new-hires. (YMMV.)

Thanks! I hope the $30/HR raise becomes a reality.

Can you tell me how seniority is awarded within the training class?

BTW I had to look up YMMV... :)

Birthday. Oldest to youngest.

Not related to this thread, but didn't want to start a dedicated post:

Beyond flying on Alaska, what are the travel benefits like?

For example, if an Alaska pilot wanted to take his/her family to Europe, are there interline agreements (~free) or would it be an ID90-type situation...

Thanks in advance!

We have a pretty sweet deal with Europe airlines that we bump off revenue passengers for their seats . Yay Alaska

What are the odds of getting an Anchorage base as a new hire or by the time training is done? Is there enough movement in the seniority list to make this a possibility?

We have ZED agreements with almost any airline you can think of, plus business class ZED agreements with Austrian, Condor, Hawaiian, Lufthansa, and United.

As you can imagine, the business ZEDs are useless domestically, but we have successfully used them to Europe, Hawaii and Australia.

2 out of 12 new hires in class got ANC 2 weeks ago.

Any base you want.
If not awarded in class, you will be able to get it in the next award. Except PDX, that's the FO's "QX country club" as one instructor put it. That takes about a year ~ year and a half. (With the forecast hiring, I expect that time to drop.)

OK thanks, hope that holds true for the next several months.