Alaska or Jetblue?
 

If I am fortunate enough to have this choice, which one has better prospects (long term). Im a west coast guy, so JB LGB would be nice, where as ALK obviously a west coast operator.

What do you all think? Both airlines seem to be great places!

Obviously, I have done my research, but until you are there, you don't know how it truly is.

Thanks

HappyD

JetBlue.
Better contract, better reserve rules, better ltd, better vacation, better schedules, better qol.
They are growing. Have a ton of orders, aren’t looking at loosing over a third of their mainline fleet, oh and don’t have a massive squadron of regional aircraft.
They have scope.
It goes on and on.

Yes, definitely JetBlue.

Isn’t LGB senior, and scaling down?

Thx guys for the quick responses!

HappyD

You're a West coast guy. JetBlue's LGB is small and senior. A transcon commute isn't worth a better contract. And I have a bridge to sell the pilot who says Alaska's going to downsize (or in his words "loosing") its mainline fleet by 1/3.

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If you want to be on the west coast then Alaska is the obvious choice for me. If you don’t mind moving to the east coast then I feel like JetBlue would be a fine choice.

Alaska grows very very slowly and doesn’t have many retirements in the pipeline, and we outsource a ton of our “growth” to Skywest and Horizon... however if you want to be west coast it’s a fine place to work for now. If you’re young I would just keep the apps updated at the big 3.

JB LGB base is small, very senior, and not necessarily guaranteed to be around forever.

I would not do JB unless willing to move east. A career transcon commute is a special kind of hell.

JB probably provides a better opportunity, if you don't care where you live.

But if you consider all possible merger matchups, B6 and AS would make a decent match so you might be able to have your cake and eat it too eventually.

Now you’ve done it! I can hear the flock of boo birds feverishly flapping their wings, swooping to this thread. Remember, everything you hear here is amplified for both the pro and con arguments. Any commute, no matter how short, is added stress and I would avoid it. If you live in or are willing to move to any of the bases of your potential employer, go there. Differences in contracts can be learned and worked around. Alaska is in the opening process of section 6 CBA negotiations, it’s about to get ugly if previous management foot dragging is any indicator. Keep that in mind.

Learned, yes. Worked around??? Idk, we shouldn't have to. This contract is pretty horrible. Scheduling especially. Those work arounds are debatable and painful.