I think you meant to say “Contract 2009 where pilots got to choose what type of retirement they wanted and only some chose to keep their pension”. Poor comparison.

This is literally the craziest thing I’ve ever read on APC. Congrats!

and once again, where were the scope improvements? How is that a poor comparison?

Not defending the lack of scope. The negotiated changes to retirement had nothing to do with scope negotiations. There was not an ask by Alaska on retirement that we could have somehow traded for scope. They simply refused to discuss it and we were too gullible and believed Brad Tilden when he promised that Alaska Airlines had no use for and no plans for a 2-class cabin regional jet. He went on to point out that Horizon no longer operated jets and there were no plans for them to ever operate any type of jet in the future. He finished up by saying that the handful of CRJ-700’s being operated by Skywest on Alaska’s behalf were being sold and the contract would be terminated. Effectively ending any need for scope….Hook line and sinker we took it and were played the fools once again.

This is proof enough that the old union playbook needs to be thrown away. Having the old "get along to go along" philosophy has left this pilot group a day late and a dollar short for decades.

There's almost a regional airline-like mentality- where the senior Seattle lifers set the tone because the rest are moving on in a couple of years anyway. It needs to change.

Alaska is a growing airline that has ambitions to compete nationally against large competitors. Its pilots should have a contract that reflects those goals.

Have some self-respect and negotiate for it.

Alaska has no intention of competing nationally with anyone.

This is that whole self-respect thing I just talked about. If BM really wants 4600 pilots, they're going to have to fly somewhere outside of the PNW and AK.

Even if it's totally BS, they have made the claims they want to be a player in the US. If that's the case, then the pilots need a commensurate contract to go with those aspirations.

I've never met a pilot group with such an inferiority complex in my entire career.

Self Respect has nothing to do with your assertion that Alaska Airlines wants to be anything more than a Pacific Northwest airline. Yes there are destinations across the country but they have no interest in any kind of significant presence outside of the west coast.
Im not sure where the 4600 number comes from, perhaps that number includes Horizon and Skywest pilots flying for Air Group. There will not be 4600 mainline pilots anytime soon.

I heard 3600-3800ish the target for the end of 2026…. I like 4600 a lot better though, maybe that is a merger number.

3800 + HAL (800) = 4600.
thats gonna be a lot of airbuses to park