No. I gave you very concrete reasons why you can’t stop attrition by making 12 yr pay $360. You just don’t want to accept it. My predictions of what? SLI result and $245-246 I called correctly, not that it matters at this point.


In fact if you were being honest, in that you TRULY wanted to stem attrition, it would involve leaving the top end relatively untouched (how many 12 yr AS guys have apps out?) and raising FO year 1-5 scale tremendously. That would help stem some attrition. Not a $360 top end with sloped raises for year 1-11.

 

You want to stem attrition? Pay people enough so that they can afford to build a life within driving distance of the airports they work. Not a 3 hour commute from the exurbs. Not a quick fly-in from Central WA or CA. In town. Own a home. Then suddenly your hiring pool is much larger, because people are willing to relocate to cities they know they can afford.

That is why people are chasing widebodies in the first place. They do it for the paycheck and chance to build a life without compromise. There's no hard and fast rule that says NB pilots can't have that. But Alaska doesn't even try. They pay less than market rate and tell their employees to figure out how to build a life in some of America's most expensive cities.

New hires are looking down the road and figuring out it doesn't work.

 

​​​​​​Oh, raising only years 1-5 is going to solve attrition? See how many people, who are a few years in at AS and debating leaving, decide to stick around knowing that after year 5, they'll be right back to being drastically undervalued relative to the industry. People don't plan a career move around years 1-5, they plan around TOS, where they'll ideally spend the vast majority of their career.

This is one of the dumbest things you've posted here.

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This can't be solved by only looking at new FOs or senior Captains. Why? I'm a new FO now but won't be forever.

I'm looking at a long term view but hoping the short term isn't filled with pain to get there. I want to know there is fair value throughout my career. I'm happy to pay my dues but I'm also trying to have a decent life along the way. But I'm new so what do I know?

Side note, you can pnly get so much information before coming on property. Subtle details are hard to catch until you're in the mix. I understand why so many of my predecessors left and why forrum chatter says go somewhere else.

 

The point was to stop attrition. NOT stop lifers from leaving. Something like 90% of people leaving are sub 5 yrs. Once you get enough years at a place, the golden handcuffs are on tight. Years 1 to 5 being a drastically high payrate offsets the current initial low pay and slower upgrade times at AS. Legacy carriers have options for widebody FO or narrowbody CA. Alaska doesn’t. People WILL leave to pursue that unless you offer drastically higher money for this timeframe.

Lastly, the big 3 at least offer some older pilots and retirements of triple digits for the next decade plus. 500-900 per year. Alaska retirements are single digits and EXTREMELY slow for the next decade plus. Why would a newhire stay here, when his relative seniority at year 12 will be FAR worse at Alaska than any of the big 3?

 

Moved goalposts. Now we have attrition because people can’t live within 3 hrs of base, and legacy pilots bid widebody so they can afford to live within 3 hrs of base? This is a terrible take. Im sure you weren’t trolling, but this post is a far stretch. Go tell the real working class (not pilots) about “not” being able to afford to live in SEA, PDX, SFO, and LAX while making 130-450k and see how fast you get laughed at.

 

You said money wouldn't help with attrition. I gave you a specific example of how more money would have a significant impact on the quality of life of West Coast based pilots. Not moved goal posts.

You're not competing with other jobs. There are better offers by airline competitors that make living in these cities easier.

Whatever man. You want to compare yourself to baristas, go ahead. In fact, that helps clear up of your warped sense of value.

 

You know that you deserve to have a contract and pay that reflects directly with your peers. Don’t get in this mindset that’s been here for far too long, that you’re not worthy of it and that the company can’t pony up. News flash, they can.

 

Sure, more money by helps with higher COL areas. But Alaska offers 5 bases lying next to the west coast line ONLY, 1 fleet type ONLY, a very young pilot group with very little retirements, meaning a very slow slog up the seniority list, very little movement for relative seniority. Money can’t fix these issues.

 

Reading what ALPA wrote and reading Will’s letter it has the same tone. -We were out-played, we were short-sighted and we took the bait. Now that we figured this out we are going to cry foul. We are going to turn this into a “do the right thing” moment and ask you to give us what we want even though a vast majority of us didnt want it before.- Seems almost childish.