av8or

I’m not moanin brother. I like the job. I’ve worked much harder for less. Enjoy the people. Good equipment. And take pride in bein here. I’m invested. Just trying to get a better feel for the journey ahead.

Mudhen200

I don’t know what to say except that you are completely wrong. The truth is what I and others have stated. We have seen millions of pounds of back logged freight on the ramp simply because the 400 combi was late coming on line or the freighter was broke hard. That’s truth. Ravn, big and little Ace, Lyndon and all the others will certainly do all they can to provide lift and make money, but they can not handle the volume of freight AND passengers. Do you think that Princess Lisa will let the cries of the tribal leaders fall on deaf ears when they tell her that the kids are outta soda pop in BET, OME, OTZ, and BRW? Don’t think she will mind when the pipeline gets shut down due to lack of slopers ? How bout we shut down the largest zinc mine in the world for a week or two? No problem right? Believe what you want but I’ll stick to reality. Just because you don’t like the truth does not mean that it’s not the truth.

Singlecoil

So a legal job action after going through a 30-day cooling off period need not be a full blown strike. What if we said we would keep operations normal in Alaska, but we wouldn’t fly south or east of Seattle? The company would still be crippled, but they wouldn’t be able to show pictures of empty shelves in Bethel to pressure the politicians to act.

Packrat

True, you're not the only game in town. But with the amount of freight that the listed carriers (you forgot Everts Air Cargo!) have to move on their own, losing Alaska freighter/belly freight creates and overwhelming backlog that the named carriers can't make up.

Perhaps you should limit your commentary to passenger ops because you obviously know zero about what the freight haulers in Alaska are doing.

Packrat

Hate to break this to you, but its already happening. Just had a friend who got a ticket from IAD to ANC for $400. Interesting price when you consider the Delta price from EWR to IAD is more expensive.

Take a stroll through the B concourse the next time you're in ANC when the Delta jets are at the terminal. Packed.

FAI is the same way at gate 3 for the redeye. Delta is coming hard for Alaska business and the local loyalty doesn't appear to be holding, especially if the travelers are going anywhere other than the West Coast.

Just reporting my observations.

Packrat

Because that would be flying struck work and all the ANC pilots would become scabs. The only legal way to have a "partial" strike is to use CHAOS. But working one half of the system isn't a strike.

ShyGuy

So the native’s moral of the story sounds like we can’t strike so let’s just roll over? Somebody already said it before several months ago. We would have already had a TPA sooner and a JCBA sooner if the pilot group... I’ll leave it at that, but you know where that’s going.


One thing I think both sides can agree on is that something has to give way soon. Delta is relentless in SEA and apparently Alaska itself, United in SFO, all 3 big ones in LAX, and soon to be SWA in Hawaii which represents 24% of AS capacity. It just doesn’t look good. We’re still just a west coast regional pulling out of mid-markets and going for more up/down flying. The reality is the big 4 can take you anywhere on their own metal plus codeshares. AS can get you mostly from 5 states as the overwhelming majority of their operation. Hunkering down now but for how long can that last?

AS for 84 years isn’t the same capability as AS of 2018. The market dynamics are entirely different now with the big 4 controlling 84% market share and their hometown of SEA and ANC being brutally attacked.

ASpilot0936

The truth is that yes, service will be reduced, but will NOT be completely shut down. That's what the nepotistic crony can bank on. I'll bet you root for mgmt. too.

ASpilot0936

And you can stick to SEA bub becasue you have no idea at the amount of freight we've given to NAC over the years when we only had 709 flying up here. And yet they seem to do just fine. They'll just bring one of their 767s up if they have to.



They'll all step up for the additional revenue as freight is gold up here.....

Mudhen200

Good grief...is that all you got? Classic example of what not to do. When you can’t even begin to defend your position when faced with facts and reality, you default to name calling. Although, I gotta admit, you choosing nepotism and management crony as your pet peeves is interesting.

I can assure you, I am neither. I’ve probably got more hours of volunteer time in ALPA than you have flight time.

For the record, I’m not saying all is lost and that there is no hope for a better contract. I am simply saying that there will never be a strike at Alaska Airlines. We will have to use other means to achieve our goals, but a strike is off the table.