It looks like you're heading elsewhere, but I'm curious, did they ever give you a class date?

Nope...silence. A buddy of mine interviewed on the same day, got the CJO as I did, but also doesn't have a class date. This was back in early October.

AS has a great pilot group (I have a bunch of friends who are very happy there.) I'm sure I would have really enjoyed it. But in December they announced that they were "re evaluating hiring for 2024" and that no classes are scheduled after February. I'm sure the Max debacle isn't helping at all...

I tried, and so did my buddy. We were told Feb class is full and no classes scheduled for rest of year...

"As of today, we had one class of ten new hires start in January, and have a class scheduled and filled for February. We do not plan to start any new pilots until after what looks to be a remarkably busy summer. The current plan is to resume new hire pilot classes this fall and carry well into 2025."

Email CJO group got from Scott Day...OCT 24 is what we are hearing directly from AS so not sure who said they were not starting classes until 25

You are both probably reading from the same email and you're essentially saying the same thing. Published expectation is to start new hire classes again in Q4. Separate statement, no classes are currently scheduled. Extrapolate or word as you see fit.

That could mean hiring, or it could mean pullback out of CA.

They could probably retain more newhires in PDX as opposed to SFO...

Out of curiosity, from the sounds of the discussions here it sounds like LAX and SFO are junior bases. What makes them so, and what are trips like out of those places (as in average number of days, percent of red-eyes etc) and is there any provision to "satellite base" out of LGB / SNA / SMF etc?

CA Bases
 

LAX is senior now. With the Airbus transitions, LAX went senior. SFO is our most JR base. Best variety of trips by far are out of SEA, only because it's the highest bank of flying. Alaska doesn't service LGB, SNA has a limited number of lines dedicated to it. SMF is not a base, and I doubt will ever be. There has been pontification on trying to make SJC a co domicile with SFO. As I understand it, as of now, SFO is most JR for both FO and CA. Once hiring starts again, most likely SEA will become available relatively quickly, and now maybe PDX depending on when the growth spurt happens. All this is just a guess and I'm sure I'll be corrected somewhere!

SFO is the junior base for both CA and FO. It's a very expensive place to live and it can be very challenging for commuters. I don't feel it is difficult to imagine why this base is very junior.

It's also the junior base for an airline that has taken the majority of our pilots who have made the decision to leave. Which I feel is understandable. A junior AS pilot on reserve can not pick up extra flying to help pay for that crash pad yet at the same time due to reserve staffing rules it is difficult to trade reserve days. It's not a stretch to imagine why SFO will remain the junior base for quite some time. AS mgmt has created quite the problem for themselves. I just wish the pilots would stop trying to solve it.