I know where you can fly an MD-80...ex-Alaska MD-80s at that!

 

Problem 1: Purchase of larger aircraft.
Once you get past the first few dozen pilots at VX, the average age of a new hire started to be lower than AS. Let’s just assume to prevent an argument that the average age of a new hire was the same at both companies throughout. All of the AS pilots on average are paired with pilots of about their same relative age, however because VX pilots get put in with pilots that were hired 15-20+ years before them it is as though they were hired by Alaska when they were 15-20 years old (15-20 before age 35 years of age which is my guess of a historic mean of new hires at AS). Over time, the top of the combined seniority list will start to stack with VX pilots. I’ll just take myself as an example, I was to retire AS at about number 30, now it’s looking at about 160ish depending on who wins the arbitration. The majority of those pilots being mostly VX guys and all of them hired at VX after I was hired at Alaska. Now if AS finally orders say 20 787’s, I would have been a shoe-in to get a slot without the merger, since the merger, I probably would not get a 787 slot.

Problem 2: The California plan doesn’t work out.

Let’s use the example of a mid-seniority Captain. Say 25% at Alaska that puts his seniority number pre-merger at 500/2000 (let’s pretend for math sake) if he maintains relative position then he is post-SLI at 700/2800 (25% again, let’s pretend for maths sake) . Now this California plan doesn’t work out in the next few years and we end up right back where we started as far as total number of pilots. Well now, the Alaska Captain is now 700/2000 which is back down to 35% which takes him from a middle seniority line holder pre integration to barely hanging on to a line. All 200 slots above him would be lost to pilots that were hired at VX 5+ years after he got hired at Alaska.

 

Can someone post each side’s proposals so we can better understand the positions?

 

Somebody can correct me but I believe as far as relative seniority it’s close to

Vx proposal VA guys lose ~4 percent
ALK proposal VA guys lose ~20-25 percent

Longevity is all over the place.

 

The average age difference between the groups by stratum is only 3 years. It’s in the briefs.

And a hypothetical 787 acquisition is irrelevant as it wasn’t expected and both sides could play that game.

 

I know it doesn't apply in this case, but DOH is the gold standard.

 

And hypothetical business or economic losses that would cause a loss of 500 pilots and lead to furloughs are similarly ridiculous. One could as easily assume that the incorporation of the VX aircraft and personnel will be wildly successful and would actually LEAD to the acquisition of all those 787s that - absent this merger - would have never happened.

Or that,lacking any scope whatsoever, AAG will farm 90% of the business out to Horizon, with them flying MRJs and ERJs at regional wages while they furlough mainline pilots.

You can suppose damn near any scenario.

 

So was Sears and Roebuck. Relative seniority within category/class is now the Amazon.

 

So maybe we should start new hires with a relative seniority number based on there previous gig? We all started with a DOH number. Why shouldn't it be used to merge lists. The entitlement attitude has taken over. Heck why does VX have 2007 hires ahead of 2006 guys? You always get a weak answer. Good luck to all of us.

 

As nasty as this is going, I think you'd all be better off just saying ***k it and build the list by the last four of your socials.