You're still here? I'm disappointed. Where's your gumption?

You missed me? I’m more chill these days knowing I won’t have to deal with being integrated wit a bunch of misfits.:D

You're not gone yet. lol

My bad. I assumed you were on the Alaska side originally. I fully acknowledge the **** sandwich a lot of VXers have endured by having to start over after your previous carriers shut the doors. I was directing my comment towards some of the newer hires I have flown with.

Also agree that bringing our work rules in line with the rest of our peers and getting some scope language is where our focus as a group needs to be.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michael...k-in-progress/

What we probably won’t see: a merger with another smaller player, such as JetBlue or Frontier, especially after Alaska’s issues digesting Virgin America. With 68% of the US market still dominated by the Big Four, Alaska’s challenge will be to prove that bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better—or more profitable.

Other commentary has contradicted that. Just one guy's opinion.

If AS thinks they can thrive on whatever small organic growth they can achieve, they would probably prefer to go solo. But I'm sure not AS, or many other folks, think they can do that in the very large shadow of the big four.

Simply anectodal evidence but, it seems Alaska only has three options:
1. Grow organically over time before they get run out by Delta in SEA and SWA to the South.
Not likely their plan since they keep pushing orders back, slowing growth projections and slowing hiring.

2. Grow through M&A.
Not looking likely soon because of what they paid for Virgin America AND the fact that they wouldn’t have even done THAT, if JBlue hadn’t forced their hand.

3. Be purchased. And go away as a brand.
I’ve been told that the leadership doesn’t want to be known as the team that sold away the Alaska legacy. But, in time they might not have a choice.

I am based in SEA but I live in the south. The land of Delta. And, thankfully we’re now serving cities here in their back yard. ATL, BNA, RDU etc. But here’s the difference in Delta’s philosophy in SEA vs Alaska’s doing in the East.... Delta is AGRESSIVELY pursuing Alaska’s market. And I’m guessing SWA will do the same to Hawaii.
Alaska’s response is, “well we are gonna just keep being so amazing that nobody in the PNW or Alaska or California will use our competition.”

I thought that maybe since Alaska is going to all the East and Southeast destinations, maybe they’d be gearing up for trying to market themselves as a better alternative to Delta or JetBlue to people who previously never considered Alaska.... but they aren’t.

There’s no marketing of Alaska in Nashville to Nashvillians to go to SEA or SFO, or Hawaii. There’s none in ATL or RDU etc. And I wondered “Why? Why would you let Delta come in YOUR town and market themselves as the airline for Washingtonians by being THE airline for the Seahawks and not push back by marketing/educating Delta’s customers in the South, that we have a better product.

And then it dawned on me. They aren’t interested. The flights to all those cities in the East, aren’t to compete with Eastern based airlines for some of their market share with people who live in the East. They serve so cities just to give more options for folks that live in the PNW, Cali, or Alaska, or used to and know our brand already.

They want to grow our route structure, and have. But not to take the fight to the East coast, but to just hang on to or slightly gain a little more of what they’ve always been, a great PNW and Alaska based airline.

I don’t think that’s a viable strategy with what Delta and SWA are bringing to bear, but I guess time will tell.

Fact, I know several guys that commute from Tennessee, Georgia, and NC on the vx side and all have said there has been exactly zero advertising and few have ever heard of alaska in their hometowns.

Exactly. And I wondered why at first. But, kinda like hearing the term “flying southeast” over and over and realizing they actually meant southeast Alaska, not Valdosta, GA, I realized that when they say they want to be “the West Coast” airline, they don’t mean we want to be a national airline BASED out of the West Coast, what they really mean is they wanna be a regional airline who reaches out and and touches East coast cities. So, from Alaska’s perspective Boston, JFK, ATL, BNA etc is to Alaska management what Madrid, Heathrow, and Paris are to the majors. It’s like self-imposed domestic cabotage rules.

Alaska??? Not a chance, they have no foresight or desire to be anything other than what they are.

First and foremost DAL has 6x the market cap and AS is afraid to get smacked down like the 4 state bush league regional that it is. Small thinkers get small results. Doing anything different would put AS so far out of its league they just simply would not know what to do.

Hurtling conservatively into the past for 85 years...that's the motto up there on the lake.