So, of course it’s often hard to tell ones pedigree and actual knowledge on here, but.... given that Alaska has a bunch of pilots who have been recently hired and acquired, I think we prob should get this issue ironed out first.

The philosophy... the ACTUAL, LEGAL philosophy of our bargaining position needs to be clearly understoood and privately communicated by our union attorney, or reps, or whatever. We need to know what our ACTUAL weapons are if we have any.

This has been incredibly enlightening. Not encouraging, but enlightening. We all know in any group you’re gonna have some sellouts (not pointing fingers it’s just true), but if half the pilot group thinks we have all the traditional legal tools for negotiation and the other half thinks we are just negotiating for managements charity, we’re screwed before we even start.

Of course, if OZTeagle is correct, it’ll all be a moot point soon, but still...

Seems like there are many people who feel another merger/acquisition/buyout is a given. I’m curious as to what it is that makes Alaska an attractive target to one of the major airlines. It seems like they could continue applying competitive pressure and just wait for Alaska to fail. As an Alaska employee I am definitely hoping for the best here but I guess I just don’t see what the big airlines gain that they don’t have already.

Domination of KSEA, that's what they get. My money's on Delta buying/merging with us.

I hope so, becasue that means you're senior. And as soon as you senior pukes who don't give a $hit about anybody below you retire, the rest of us who give a damn about our livelihood can get to the business of getting a better contract using the all tools available to us including a strike, which can happen if we grow enough balls & apply enough pressure.

True enough, but for that to be approved it would seem they would need to divest a large number of gates etc.

A failure might not allow any given airline to pick up the specific pieces they may want... gates, jets, and maybe pilots these days. An accusation is a far more predictable way to achieve specific growth. And faster than organic growth, which depends on the availability of slots, gates, and planes. Also a failure is unlikely... far more likely that someone else would do the accusation and get the toys you wanted.

Failure of what? SEA? Lol. Ask United and Southwest how that worked out for them. I get its in vogue to trash all things Alaska but it won’t happen. And as far as Delta in the state of Alaska, thats laughable as well. Takes them two hours to turn a plane in Fairbanks during the summer.

Agreed. It can take quite a while for an airline to die down to the point where you can get them for a bargain price, at which point what you wanted may have already been sold or given up. KSEA, the Alaska market, good equipment, ETOPS trained, an ALPA pilot group with a great reputation for safety and skills, loyal customer base, etc.....we are attractive. It’s just whether or not someone would/could pony up the dough. But even then, lots of ways to structure a deal.

You think the DOJ will sign off on the 2 dominant airlines in Seattle (and maybe ANC and FAI according to a previous post) Getting together? I don’t see it happening. I don’t see any merger/acquisition of AS by any of the big 4 happening. Only one that I could see happening is us with JetBlue. But who knows. I think the rumors of us getting bought is just us hope. Hope that it’ll get better here. And we HOPE another merger is the answer.

If you only knew who you were talking too. But then, ignorance is bliss.