I'm calling it. We're geting bought.
 

What else can it be? Watch the MEC video sent yesterday. Pulling back & handing your competitors your market share? Makes you more attractive for a buyout so brad & ben can get their parachutes.


Thoughts?

Though the same thing, unfortunately. I have no clue what B & B are doing.

I hope we got bought. That’s the only way to save this hell hole.

Armchair Quarterbacks... I honestly think B and B are playing an incredible hand of poker. I think the outcome might just surprise you. Fly the jet and enjoy.

On the other hand CY an JW looked pretty silly in there little claim to video fame. I don’t think I have ever listened to more words that told me nothing... I think those faces should stick to radio. That was embarrassing!

Seems like the talk of buyouts and future mergers are mostly confined to the Alaska forum, don’t see anything else other than a JetBlue and frontier thread anywhere. Makes me think the talk of a new buyout / merger is mostly hopeful thinking by a lot of us, at least at this point.

Nice to see you on here. I thought it was wabbit season for your NDA tap dancing (violations). I think the video was spot on for a group who wants to move forward at THIS airline. But, honestly,
I think B&B are on track to sell out. I'm thinking Delta.

Aw yeah keep talking dirty to me, I'm almost there

Let’s see. They lost 1/2 the stock value, albeit it’s come back a little. They overpaid for VX and didn’t/haven’t capatlized on the synergies, or at least figure out how to. The arbitrators surprised them with an increase cost in pilot payroll, which I’m thinking they weren’t prepared for. DL’s closing in on the PNW market. WN will eat at the Hawaiian profits. How does B&B fix/save this? Or do they sell out to get the most money?

are we getting married? Seems like we are getting married to our brother's ex wife. Likely Y'all feel the same, except the virgin guys, who get their east coast flying back.

think it makes sense, actually. Don't really care except for 2 items:

1) we fix your dumpster fire that is your scope clause. Our's is zero scope. No jetblue express period. Hope no bluelaska scope allowances either. FYI I'm a 10 year regional refugee. I don't dislike regional guys, I just want all our flying to be in house.


2) Since pilots are stupid, arrogant, and self entitled, I have to say this: whoever wears the first, "hired, not acquired" lanyard gets a round house kick in the nuts. Don't care if it us, Virgin dudes, or Alaska dudes. F that. We are all in this as one group (should this arranged and forced marriage happen) Don't be douches to other Pilots. Ever.

In the words of Peter Griffin:

“Roadhouse!”

Because the ALA MEC believes our management is inept, you think ALK is on the selling block? I dont think anything is in works for an merger/acquisition announcement anytime soon. I think all this M&A talk is strictly hope by people who hate it here.

I'm calling it. We're geting bought.
 

I agree. It’s all just wishful thinking because there is no direction at the top of this company. With the recent email this morning blaming everything on the Airbus and ALPA, it makes me hate this place even more. Instead of running an airline, they want to blame others for problems they created.

Although the talk has died down and pilot hiring continues, there was this...

https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/s...ng-freeze.html

They had a 2 week pause... for administrative hires. Sounds like they are still hiring 750+ this year and no plans to slow.


If anyone has slowed hiring for now, it’s DL... but with their growth in SEA there’s no reason for them to consider AS.

I thought the same thing.. The Airbus was reliable for the 10 years we had them and now suddenly they're not?

Can we stop calling it “The Jet?” This isn’t the dawn of the ”Jet Age.” Everyone operates jets now.

If the incredible hand of poker involves ****ing everyone off, they are doing a superb job. The only outcome that would be positive is merging or getting bought by another airline.

I think the MEC speaks for most of us, what they said is exactly what most of us think. Can't wait for the upcoming initiatives that the union is working on for the pilots!

Not saying the video is any indication of being bought, however if we do get bought, hind sight would make it comedically obvious that they were doing things to align the chips to be sold. Too many odd things going on right now. 100% freeze on any Airbus improvements and paint, a general lack of mx upkeep, the closing of JFK, hiring freeze etc. I think they are getting the PNL in line to look good to a potential buyer. For a company that has been around 87 years I never never been less confident in our collective future.

[QUOTE=Beta82;2649425]Can we stop calling it “The Jet?” This isn’t the dawn of the ”Jet Age.” Everyone operates jets now.

Well the 737/320's are jets. Welcome aboard. It's an Alaska thing. As far as getting bought, if it happens we'll read it in the paper like everyone else. Relax fly the "jet", and fly the contract. Everything else will work it's self out.

I wonder if they aren't getting ready to offload the bus fleet? Rumor has it that another legacy is shopping around for more of them.

I can say, because I have heard the powers that control this say that United would take all the leases tomorrow if they could...

That is a very real possibility. But the more VX stuff they divest and get rid of, you have to scratch your head more and more at what they actually bought. 4 billion dollars to close a base, get rid of a modern airline culture, give up gates to regional flying, AND give up a fleet of aircraft? Presumably giving up the staffing levels to go along with it? I think this was a core frustration with the group and was echoed in the MEC video. What is the plan? Like really, what is the plan here? Give us something real...

Defensive move against a perceived existential threat? $4 billion to keep B6/VX from merging cheaply. No idea why it was worth that much to AS though.

[QUOTE=flywest;2649472]Maybe it's time for a change? You can see why one might think that calling your airplane ”the jet” might be a little ostentatious. Definitely not necessary in 2018. Maybe we can work towards getting rid of that saying along with the crappy contract in 2019/2020/2021/ yougetthepoint. :thumbsup:

It was to prevent Delta from taking over.

Did I misread JL’s email? I thought he wrote that the company will be taking many Airbus off line to paint and update the interiors with Alaska colors/scheme. I skimmed it pretty fast but I thought that was in there?

It's in there. But they have only painted one Bus and then completely stopped. They could have done 1-2 a month instead of taking a bunch offline at once. It seems as if they stopped supporting the Airbus completely. We shall see...

take 2 planes down a month during the busy summer months? Or wait until the historically slower First Quarter to start taking metal offline.

I dont like this management team either, but you sound like you are just grabbing at straws.

Alaska and JetBlue wanted to merge but couldn't decide on who would run it or the name of the airline. Then AS went to Virgin America.

Not sure how bidding up VX vs B6, not Delta, is supposed to help.

Delta was also bidding for virgin, they walked away when the price got insane.

I’m skeptical of that.

Delta walked away when they thought regulators wouldn't allow a merger that big.

AS had a lot of cash on hand and the stock was relatively cheap. Management at Alaska was worried about being taken over.

[QUOTE=Beta82;2649546]I don’t even work for your airline and I can’t, for the life of me, comprehend why you care in the least about the terms JET vs. AIRPLANE. Who cares? I mean, really? Who cares? Plane, jet, whatever.

Were you a hall monitor in junior high?

[QUOTE=Beta82;2649546]“the jet” is a very common term at SWA too. I’m thinking it’s because it’s a jet...

It isn’t just grabbing at straws. The amount of MELs we are carrying are above and beyond from what we ever carried before. WiFi and pax comfort items are being left broken, in fact I have had a few 4 day trips where 50% of the airplanes have WiFi written up, and not just the sat wifi.

I’m not saying it’s a sign of being bought, to me it’s a sign of the Bus going away, but if there is an acquisition, we will look back at this and it will be obvious that something was going on in hind sight.

Taking down a bunch of planes at once to paint in any month seems silly. Postponing all aircraft painting for what, 6 months now, has put them on an even tighter schedule to get it done (don’t forget that there is a royalty fee and deadline to get this livery off the planes). Meanwhile 737s are going down every month to get decals applied and new paint jobs. I’m not a conspiracy theorist at all, but to me it clearly indicates something. What that something is, we won’t know until we see it on the news.

Yep, at this point it looks like they spent 4+ billion just to expand enough to try and not get bought but the stock price hasn’t recovered yet. And with the current administration allowing some huge merger/acquisitions, I don’t think Alaska is safe from being bought at all.

Yep, with the Sprint/T-Mobile anything is possible. But they would have to try to get it done soon as I don't see the current administration making it another 4 years.

Sprint/T-Mobile, AT&T/Time Warner are huge, unprecedented approved mergers. I wouldn’t even consider JB in the wheelhouse for purchasing AS. They can’t afford it and right now UAL is probably drooling at the idea of buying JB and not having to digest anything.

American and SWA could make a buy at AS and I bet the DOT wouldn’t bat an eye right now.

UA would have a big problem in the northeast. They made the excellent decision to give up JFK, which DL kindly exploited. There would have to be big concessions between JFK and EWR. BOS would also probably take a hit.

That’s exactly my point though. UAL was eyeing JB but would have previously had to divest too much to make it work. Imagine if they had a no restrictions green light to acquire JB because our administration is allowing it