It’s frightening how at every contract cycle we (airline pilots in this country) do not see how compounding inflation erodes our purchasing power. If those are the proposed rates then once again that will hold true.

No disrespect to Alaska pilots because I mean this as a whole, but we drastically need to up our asks or we will continue to fall further and further behind.

Personally here at SWA I need to see a minimum of a 40% increase on our rates over the course of our next four year contract. If that number shocks you then break it down and you’ll hopefully realize that it’s just keeping pace with the financial realities of the world.

Again, no disrespect and I hope that we can help to raise the bar for each other.

Yes.

Be aware that some old-timers might not like rigs because the company would then be incentivized to do away with the 30-hour resort destination layovers they enjoy. Had that explained to me at a regional once :rolleyes:

They're still constrained by the 1 flight per day in some destinations. That's automatically a 24.

It's 100% speculation that a 3 hour min day would bust up the destination overnights. It's buying into the company line to not fight for it.
Call their bluff and get paid.

Yes. Just pointing it out, some may have assumed that everybody would like more lucrative rigs. I did, until it was 'splained to me.

Here is the deal. If you fly single-aisle domestic narrow-body as we do at Alaska, there are no resort or destination etc.. layovers. Hawaii, Mexico and little third-world central american countries are essentially domestic for us. 14-16 hr layovers, calendar day mins, duty period mins, block or better and go home….This airline is now, has always been and will always be a small minded jerk-water regional..Shake them down hard while you are at work and get the eff away from them when you are off…..A new contract is not going to make working for Alaska enjoyable. The rotted culture is not going to change….Being very expensive to them will only make the hate us more….I hope our new contract makes us very, very expensive…

If they love these overnights so much, here's an idea: Let's make all, or an overwhelming majority, of our trips more productive so they can go enjoy those places ON THEIR OWN TIME, with their newly afforded extra 3-4 days off per month and the rest of us who just work here to collect a paycheck can ALSO enjoy some more time off. Everyone's happy!

You sound like an absolute joy to fly with.

The pilot group isn't a monolith. Some people enjoy nice layovers.

You know what really kills productivity? 3 hour airport sits because the next departure to your destination is on a E175. The segmentation and outsourcing of the route structure has done more damage to productivity than long layovers ever did. And getting a min day while you're having a Mai Tai is how it should work.

Is he wrong? Sounds pretty accurate to me.

Never occurred to me to wonder about it. A couple of complete strangers show up, work a 5-day and go home. Probably to never fly together again. I make a point to not pry into the complete strangers life. Called common courtesy. I do my own thing on layovers. Another common courtesy. I really dont care how the stranger flies and have nothing to say about it…As long as it resembles what the owners want. I am not an instructor and make a point of not instructing. ….I have nothing to say about whats on tv or whats on the internet or what Alaska has to say….So you know what I will do just for you. I will start asking FO’s that question st the end of the trip and I will get back to you…