This is some Grade A Stockholm Syndrome propaganda you're pushing right here.

"I only beat you because it's good for you, baby."

PAH-LEEEZE. You're not offering any guarantees that low costs and sacrificed pay will translate into growth. After all, ALK management loves to beat their chests about that industry leading profit margin, and growth plans will surely cut into that bar graph. Crew pay constitutes less than 8% of total operational costs, but yet you pretend that the entire airline hinges on the cost of the pilots. By the way, this has been a spectacular diversion from the original point of "What's the plan?" With the projected 737 deliveries and the anticipated loss of the Airbus fleet, ALK is looking at a net loss of aircraft over the next decade.

You don't have to be a business major to use addition.

 

That’s the gamble Brad and Ben made...and?... What are you going to do about it? If they want to risk the future of Alaska Airlines, that’s their perogative I guess. I’d be far more worried about the effects of spending 4 Billion on VX than I would be about Delta’s hiring practices BTW.

 

I was riding the hotel van, the other day, on the way to the airport. I struck up a conversation with a Spirit captain. I asked about their negotiations. He told me that Spirit recently offered their pilots:

~$264 AND PBS.

Of course, I do not know if this is true and even if so it is an over-simplification of their negotiations. But, if the pay number is correct and comes to fruition, Alaska could soon be number 6.

If Spirit gets $264, what does JetBlue get? Who's next?

I believe the Alaska Mechanics have a clause that keeps them at, I believe, the third highest in their peer group. If someone else gets a raise, knocking them down from 3rd, there's some kind of adjustment. The rub is in who is included in that peer group.

When Doug Parker addressed the American pilot's initial request to re-open pay negotiations in light of gains at Delta and United, he responded that the American pilots were among the first in the negotiation cycle and that they raised the bar for everyone who followed and that they would lead the way again with their next negotiations. The point being, even Doug Parker, Mr. East vs. West, knows that successive negotiations are going to raise the bar, unless of course you are someplace like Alaska where you start off at 5th, only to finish lower.

You guys keep talking only hourly pay. What a pilot makes is not his hourly pay. What a pilot makes is what his W-2 says at the end of the year. That W-2 is a more valid comparison. That W-2 is a function of hourly pay AND work rules.

Bottom, line even if you Alaska guys were paid Delta wages, you'd still be cheaper because of your inferior work rules. You are more productive and Alaska gets by with fewer pilots, working more for straight time. Every new-hire or upgrade you prevent by working so productively, saves Alaska hundreds of thousands of dollar$ each.

While you guys work more for less, WN can still drop to 0, pick up all Premium, or take the month off, still has trips touching, and the best scope in the industry. Delta has Green slips and profit sharing out the wazoo, All the while, Alaska can't drop below 75 and is working on their days off and vacation for straight time to make less with little or no quality of life, and BM & BT continue buy back billion$ in stock, offer themselves others countless $tock option$, pay dividend$ and spend billion$ on another airline, all on the back of your front-line employees.

So, my question is this. Since you are seemingly happy with no. 5. what happens if and when you guys and gals become number 6 or number 7?

just curious-

Will the on-time and completions still be in the 90's?

My Magic 8 Ball says yes.

Speaking of no. 8, that can't be far behind. It comes after 7, which comes after 6, which comes after 5.....

good luck and be safe out there. take care of one another; because, if you don't no one else will. the cooch is not on your side.


.

 

By saying past negotiations, one seems to blame only the Union. They are copiable, especially for being too conciliatory. But, I say again:

The Union is not the Negotiating Committee, the MEC or even National. The Union is the pilot in the seat next to you.

If during negotiations, that pilot is flying Premium, selling back vacation or picking-up Open Time, you are doomed to fail.

ARBITRATION OR NOT

The only thing your company understands is canceled & delayed flights.

End of story-

 

By saying past negotiations, one seems to blame only the Union. They are copiable, especially for being too conciliatory. But, I say again:

The Union is not the Negotiating Committee, The MEC or even National. The Union is the pilot in the seat next to you.

If during negotiations, that pilot is flying Premium, selling back vacation or picking-up Open Time, you are doomed to fail.

ARBITRATION OR NOT

End of story-

 

It's all interlinked. Why do you think Alaska Air Group would obscenely over pay for VX? It's to make Alaska less vulnerable to Delta's long term Seattle plans.

 

I don't think we're disagreeing.

Weak pilots make a weak pilot group which makes for weak negotiations and a weak contract.

 

You hit the nail on the head there, Gear Boy. Too bad it was stuck in the middle of your post. All anyone has to do is look back over the years and see how much money AS has spent on stock buybacks.

Then ask yourself, "Who are the largest individual holders of Alaska stocks." It doesn't take much research to find out how many stock options the senior managers get as part of their compensation packages.

And you're still are buying the Alaska "We are family" B.S.?

I, for one, am glad to see the radicalization of the new generation of AS pilots. The 92% mentality should have gone away long ago.

 

I’m glad most Alaska pilots get this now

 

Ironically if Alaska Air Group would have just agreed to guarantee Delta the feed it needed via code share to build a Far East hub out of Seattle, they'd probably have grown by 30% over the last few years as Delta became increasingly reliant on AK's feed. Instead they said shove off and the race is on to build a hub suitable to feed international from SEA. Probably works for mgmt's interest, but the pilots.... time will tell.