How was the actual interview process? Are they requiring the vax? Or can you get the waiver?

 

Are you still currently building turbine time?

 

I am. Only about 50 hours per month. But the QOL at my company is absolutely garbage. So, sooner I can leave, the better.

 

I went from having 19 days off a month to 13-14. Went from commutable trips on both ends to early shows and late arrivals causing my nights in SFO on my own dime to go from 1-2 a month to 5-6. Went from getting 25-35k profit sharing to 7-9k performance based bonus. My W2 was basically the same but I lost 4-6 days a month at home. Now you will hear from a bunch of guys that Alaska is the only major carrier they’ve worked for, tell you I’m full of kaka. I’m not.

 

This is all true, and has several root causes...

VX had a different business model, so different schedules.

VX hired a LOT of commuters (many refugees from BK airlines during an era when there weren't a lot of other employment options). They evolved as a commuter airline from the get-go.

VX was a startup, with a somewhat mixed bag of work rules, a few of which were very nice though.

In fairness, VX was unlikely to last forever... M&A was obviously in the cards, and covid might very well have shut it down since the owners would have seen all M&A opportunities gone for an indefinite period.

AS does a lot of west coast regional flying.

AS was never a particularly commuter-friendly airline. They hired mostly locals who lived in base.

AS never had great scheduling rules, and they lost much of what they did have through a couple rounds of arbitration.


If you live in base it should be tolerable to decent QOL with the new contract. It will pay fine.

There are better options in most bases, at least if you're young. If you're older I'd take AS if you can get it, rather than waiting an unknown timeframe for DL, UA, etc. If you're young it probably doesn't hurt you to take a job at AS and keep trying for legacies/cargo that have bases where you live.

 

But why not tell the whole story? Such as now the company will pay commuters hotels for early starts/late arrivals. You complain about paying for your own hotels, but haven’t had to for at least the last 6 months, so why lie? Oh I forgot….gotta continue to drive all the doom and gloom

 

Until that policy is black-and-white contractual, it literally means nothing.

 

Again doom & gloom. It’s in place now right so why be so negative about a what if? It’s literally like some people literally have an inner need to complain about everything

 

I think he was simply responding to the question of how his life had changed post merger. Basically, the basis for his discontent.

Being such a recent positive development, the commuter hotel policy (and now the new contract) does not accurately reflect what life under AS has been like for the past 6 years or so.

 

You do you. But it’s disingenuous at best to tout a temporary policy as reason to make a career decision. Doom and gloom…get real man, don’t be so dense. It’s a great policy, but it also didn’t make it into Contract ‘22. Doesn’t take a brain surgeon to connect the dots that it is likely not long for this world.