Do you have a number on the percentage of our pilot body that was "screaming to go back to the table for more money"?..........................

I didn't think so.

Here's a known percentage for ya... Greater than 80% voted YES for the contract on an almost 100% turnout. Stop trashing the NC. It's unbecoming.

Again, hyperbole much?

 

The union did the best they could to negotiate with a very shrewd management team. A lot of the pilot group was motivated by economic fear and did not understand the market value of the pilot profession. Or the pilot supply/hiring dynamic for the next 10 years. Between the pilot group and management everyone failed to understand that peak retirements do not arrive until 2029. I'm at a loss for sources but I've read in more than one place that the hiring dynamic will return to normal in 2032.

We likely will not vote on another contract until 2027-28 which leaves us with one or two more windows to regain some of what was lost to the pilot profession during the lost decade. ALPA is doing well industry wide. With overall a pattern of success. Sadly the Alaska Airlines pilot group will need to show a strong resolve to have a successful outcome during the next round of RLA negotiations.

We need to be capable of sending an AIP back as UA and AA did.

 

It’s done. Management wants a 3 year market rate extension. I guess we will see what the union thinks.

But yup, we got brilliant pilots asking about new bases in SAN, JFK, and PHX, because our current bases are expensive to live in… you can’t make this stuff up.🤔🙄😂

 

Again, why is Alaska leading the pack when the market hadn't even been set yet?

We were assigning value for something in the blind. They conducted phone polling and asked "how much of a % raise do you want" (by the way they asked that in 2019 before inflation) and no one had any idea what the market rate would be after the dust settled. That was why the snap was so important, in case we missed it by it mile.

Spoiler alert: We missed it by a mile.

 

If poor results cannot be criticized, then we are done as a useful entity.

 

Nothing wrong with criticism, but you're coming across as if your "contract disappointment bloodlust" will not be satiated until the NC/MEC is marched out in blindfolds, tied to posts, and shot at high noon.

Listen, do I wish we had similar SNAP UP language like the others? Hell yeah! I wish we were right up there 340ish to 360ish. But I think given the totality of the circumstances at the time, our NC negotiated a rate and MRA clause that they thought was workable.

I do think the ground shifted from under the feet of our contract when DL knocked it out of the park, but I also believe AS rate was used as one of the leverages to achieve it. I concede we'll never know for sure, but if I believe my union was truthful in their comms to us, then we just got a bad bounce of the ball.

As someone mentioned, our union leaders do seem somewhat shell-shocked that we ended up where we are. It's not the best situation, but it's not an untenable situation and, "we'll get em next time" (Caution - triggering phrase

 

I'm not out for blood, trust me. I am out for accountability and learning. And too many defenders want to say 'everything is fine' while we lose even more ground. We need to have an autopsy of how this went wrong and correct those mistakes for 2026.

And that's where you and I disagree. This isn't sports. This isn't gambling. This is contract negotiations. They had an unlimited supply of paper to account for all contingencies. They had the ability to lock it down, or hold out until they could. But the NC felt rushed to close the deal. If it was recession fears that forced their hands, then that is an unfortunate mistake that cost us all a lot of money.

 

You make some very good points.

If you ask me, the big difference between UA, and AA being able to send back their AIPs, versus AS pilots voting YES on ours, was that we really were sick and tired of the deteriorated, and deteriorating QOL that the great majority of us were experiencing or starting to experience.

Applying pain to that pressure point is arguably one of the shrewdest things management did, but going forward, with the significant QOL gains we achieved, I think we will be in a much better position to "die on whichever hill" becomes the focus of our attention

 

You’ve said this more times than I can count on this forum. Mergers were once done as well. And these looming 787 purchases.

 

But nobody here is saying "everything is fine". We do have work to do.

And please don't take "bad bounce of the ball" literally.... It was simply used as a metaphor.