KnockKnock

My best advice to you is apply to every airline you can envision yourself working. Take the first offer given, decide if that airline offers you the life you are comfortable living. If not, keep your options open and if offered a better deal, (in your eyes), take it. I know easier said than done but what else can one really do? Don’t be distracted by the overly negative stuff regarding any airline because what may not work for someone else, may suit you just fine. Like you said, prioritize.

VirginEskimo

We now have got a large contingent of recently acquired pilots who can attest that actually the demise of established companies does happen. Mine had been around for 61 years and the old hands scoffed at my concerns in the run-up to our liquidation. I’m not a doom-and-gloomer or someone hoping desperately to get bought but hearing it blithely stated that “nothing’s going to happen to this place!” brings back memories of previous assurances that proved to be quite erroneous.

KnockKnock

Yeah, sure places go out of business. However, AS is not showing any signs of going out of business. The place is still making money. Just because people are unhappy with things, which they have the right to be, doesn’t equate to liquidation. Surly, with all your previous experience at failed companies, you can tell the difference between a faultering company and people venting their frustrations.

Fred Flintstone

Surely you can call me surly.

VirginEskimo

It’s not my “fault” it’s faltering! (As long as we’re doing spell-check)😎

As I said, I’m not a “Doom and Gloomer” I agree that we are not facing any sort of imminent collapse or even strategic acquisition but things can sneak up on you quick in this industry. The competitive landscape has changed considerably in the last 10 years. Our competitors are extremely large and powerful. I wouldn’t be too sure either way. In my experience, bold, certain, emphatic pronouncements have never really borne out in this industry. I’ll just stay flexible and see what happens.

KnockKnock

Well the important thing hear is you caught my spelling errors. I rest easy at knight nowing guys like you are out their to pick me up when I faulter with the English language. On a side note, I'm not stomping my foot down declaring nothing will happen to AS. I'm saying that the repetitive howling about AS' immediate downfall are just people venting and not a true indicator of the health of the company. It's been repeated for decades. AS was gonna be bought by AA, DL, SW. AS was gonna lose all it's pilots. AS wasn't gonna attract any new pilots. AS was gonna be decapitated by SW. And the list goes on. I'm not fanning over here, I just live in a non hysterical reality. Some of these guys use up their allotment of exclamation points when describing AS. Openers start soon, I suggest we all start telling our NC what fixes we would like to see instead of just crying foul.

All Bizniz

Even though Alaska is a very healthy company financially, there are countless examples of very healthy companies being bought by other companies as part of a strategic play as I'm sure you know.

AS had been a big fish in a small pond forever, but I think there has been a paradym shift where now the biggest whales in the industry are very much interested in either totally dominating this NW Pacific/California pond or to just drop the mike and eat us whole.

It just a matter of timing, them being content to wait until the right opportunity presents itself.

KnockKnock

Well, we have two choices. We can sit around pondering the future of AS’ market share in the NW and West Coast. Creating a new boogeyman every few months and whipping up neat battle cries full of self loathing. OR.....we can try to fix what ails us by making sure our reps hear our concerns, we are well represented during negotiations, and stick to our guns come voting time. I choose the latter. Yes, change is inevitable. If AS gets gobbled up in the future, nothing you or I say will have an impact on that. Do you really want to spend your career stressing over any number of potential outcomes? Not me, I don’t get paid for that and I sure as he11 won’t accept less pay than DL, UA, AA or SW to worry about that.

All Bizniz

We can do both.

I've been ready to stand shoulder to shoulder in pursuit of what we deserve.

However, while many pilots have already decided whether they are going to stick it out or jump ship, there are those who are going back and forth about it, so looking at possible outcomes or scenarios might help one's ultimate decision...

Personally, I'm very thankful that I've found myself in a position where I dont have to stress too much about the situation, so I only "ponder" this stuff when I jump on here occasionally to catch up on the conversation.

My cellar is full and my powder is dry....

Winter is coming! #GOT #Winterfell

OTZeagle1

This is embarrassing... you are idiots. No wonder you are all unhappy and broke. You must be financially clueless. I remember many of the same morons a year ago talking about Alaska losing a “million a day”... right, we made 2 million a day in 2018. Really close though. This is not VX, we are not going to quickly go out of business. American, United, Hawaiian, Fontier, JetBlue would all go out of business years, in some cases a decade before Alaska. So do whatever you want, watch really really close... so it doesn’t “sneak up on you”, but please grow up or move on. How do you expect a descent contract when all you do is promote ignorance and garbage.