I hope we succeed too but just haven’t seen Alaska do anything but retreat and sit by and watch other airlines grow in our hubs, particularly Seattle. We have zero brand identity outside of the PNW and there’s only so long we can depend on our west coast vibe and west coast passengers. Southwest has a massive network and is aggressively growing and can really shake up the Hawaii market. Alaska has shown no interest in growing, we just cancelled a bunch of routes everyone else seems to make money on. The only thing they’ve done recently is drum up a lot of media attention about constructing a new building by headquarters in Seattle. Who cares!

 

I don’t agree with many things AAG does but do you expect them to remain in unprofitable routes? Do you know other airlines financials? How do you know these other airlines are making money on all these routes? I’d rather them fly profitable routes and make money. This will in turn make it easier for us to demand more in 2020. All I’ve seen is a redeployment of A/C, not shrinking. Shrinking would be less airplanes, less pilots, less traffic etc. As far as I know, we’re still taking orders of A/C and still hiring pilots. Maybe you don’t care about the new building in Seattle but it, along with the N satellite expansion, to me, indicates AS plans on continuous growth. As far as other airlines growing in our hubs, that’s the business. Delta’s growth in SEA jump started AS to grow faster than it had in the past. Competition is good. AS has fought many different battles in their hubs. Believe it or not, they fought off WN in SEA a while back. We’re going into CA more than we ever have before. That seems more like AS going into other airlines territory than vis versa. Brand recognition comes up a lot mostly from former VX guys. To THIS I say who cares. Waaaay above my pay grade. I don’t care if someone thinks I only fly in the state of AK, they don’t sign my paycheck. These are things we can’t influence and therefore shouldn’t concern ourselves with. What we can influence is voting on a better contract in a few yrs.

 

If you don't believe this take a stroll over to the South Satellite. Look out the North facing window. Delta as far as the eye can see. A concourse, B concourse (except for SWA at the end) and the entire South Satellite. Rode on two FULL Delta jets to get home last night.

And check the FIDS board. Delta codeshares with ALL the airlines Alaska USED to code share with. Dumping the AA code share was a HUGE mistake IMHO.

Alaska doesn't have the East/West gravitas to compete with AA and DL. One or two flights a day to a few East Coast and Midwest destinations won't cut it. More and more Alaskans are gravitating to Delta because they can get farther than the West Coast.

 

You'd better care. Because the Delta invasion of the PNW will be the prime reason Angle Lake is going to come looking for a concessionary contract in 2020. BTDT.

 

Besides the VX routes most if not all of the California growth is with RJ’s, the sjc transcon may be the only exception. We also reduced the frequency of other transcons out of LAX and SFO. Other than that we’re just putting Airbus where 737s used to be and vice versa. A lot of the VX bread and butter routes to jfk and ewr are now half full because the passengers went to delta and JetBlue because they offer better service than Alaska. But hey if a new company building means growth to you, I don’t know what to say. New cities, more planes, more seats, and more frequency means growth, not a structure that will house a uniform shop

 

It doesn’t matter if it’s Delta, Spirit, Southwest etc. AAG will ALWAYS have a boogie man in their back pocket to use as an excuse for concessions. In good times and bad, they’re gonna use every tactic they can to keep the money on their side of the table. It’s what they do, it’s what EVERY AIRLINE MANAGEMENT DOES. Whether or not someone on the East Coast knows where I fly will not change this. It’s up to the folks in marketing to fix that, not the pilots. You speak of Delta in the South Satellite, remember United in the North? Now it’s all AS jets. We’re still 51% market share in SEA and Delta is a distance second. I think guys n gals are worrying about things they really don’t need to be worried about. OCCP, I think investments in buildings means they plan on growth otherwise why do it? I don’t know your experience but I assume you’ve seen this industry at both ends of the spectrum and know that worrying about things like marketing and what may or may not happen in HI is an exercise in futility. Let the process unfold.

 

I'll vote to walk before I take a concession. If nothing else JCBA had taught us to NEVER accept a **** sandwich. It can haunt you for years.

 

I would hope every one of us would vote to walk. My point is, no matter how we’re doing as a company, good or bad, management will make it sound like we need to take one for the team and accept less. Even if we had 100% market share of the entire West Coast, BnB would say there’s a chance WN or DAL or anyone for that matter, are coming for our jobs and we need to accept less. We’re gonna get the same treatment regardless of how well known the AS brand is or isn’t, so why would anyone outside of marketing worry about it? Are you guys out there shaking hands and kissing babies to promote the brand? The one and only thing we have control over is the ability to say no with our vote or if it’s truly unpalatable, our feet. All these other other worries are just distractions.

 

And of course they will reward themselves nicely.

 

I don’t wish you or any of your brethren ill will. Here’s the reasons why SWA is going to Hawaii as stated numerous times by the company:

1. To give our Rapid Rewards pax the ability to use their points on a Hawaiian vacation (as is available on DLA, AA, UAL, etc.).

2. To support the “California Strong” initiative

3. The point that most everyone is missing is that we are carrying a lot of pax to California where they then connect to HAL (& Alaska) and fly to the islands. Therefore we are basically feeding the competition as they take our pax to the islands instead of us doing that for them.

4. Inter-island fares are high and SWA realizes they can go in and make a legitimate play for some of that market.

I sincerely hope there’s enough pax and revenue to go around for all of us but because of a combination of points 3 & 4 I just don’t see this as being a good thing for HAL airlines. Kind of like the Spirit build up in BWI is not good for SWA. Nature of the industry though.