It is the theater of the absurd that any MEC/NC energy is wasted on an operation that involves 150(?) pilots on a combined list of 4700 unless AMZN offers 20 more 330Fs at an acceptable margin, which will never happen.

This is a dying and insignificant business which will go away in 2027, and should be treated accordingly.

Cheers - Rob.

No, I did it for 15 years. I am comment on what you mention in your recent post. That's it, the company bought off on 117, just surprised.

Not sure about under Alaska's reassignment rules, or whatever we get under a combined contract, but under the Hawaiian PAX reassignment rules, it would be way more expensive for the Company to operate Amazon Cargo than with the work rules they have under the cargo section of the contract. Amazon blows up its own schedule all the time and the way the rules are written pilots don't get extra just because their schedule changes unless it goes past the original end of their trip. To compensate them for not getting protected for reassignment, they get other stuff like Short Call reserve built into the pairings and gateway city bases.

Doesn't the Alaska 737 freighter operations have a bunch of carve outs and different work rules too?

The short answer is basically no. Any line pilot can effectively bid to fly the freighter on a month-to-month basis...

Everyone is so sure about what Alaska management will or will not do. Guaranteed if 3 years I asked you guys if you thought Alaska would merge with Hawaiian you all would’ve said no. Alaska management is risk adverse, Alaska management doesn’t expand, Alaska management cancels profitable routes.. I could go on and on… Let’s see how smart you really are!

Why would the MEC/NC waste any energy on anything besides the 737? It’s almost 75% of the flying. Seems silly to waste energy negotiating 321 rates or 717 rates. Those planes are sure to be gone soon. Wasted energy for Alaska pilots to care about anything to do with WB flying because you won’t see the planes this contract cycle? Is that what you’re saying?

The HAL MEC must separately vote to approve any TA. While i’m not expecting high hopes for any freight related improvements in the JCBA I trust our guys to do the right thing.

I think you guys are just salty because the Amazon flying will be considered in the SLI. You can hate on it all you want but as soon as it’s available to be bid on there won’t be a shortage of Alaska pilots putting their name in.

Lol, 3 years ago everyone on property would have probably bet money on AS buying HA. It made the most sense of any airline. They bought VX which nobody saw coming. Literally nobody on property was surprised about HA...

Anecdotally, from talking to several AS MEC members, the AS union is pretty hard over about "No B Scale".

These conversations occurred last year, it's possible attitudes have changed and that the NC is embracing the concept of a "package deal" for the AZ contract language.

On one hand that's kind of a slippery slope, if I were involved in the union decision making I'd need to be sold pretty hard to go along with that.

OTH, HA already has different rules and payscales for different pax fleets, which does make sense (especially since regulations are different long haul, relief pilots, etc).

The JCBA TA will need to be voted on and passed *separately* by both pilot groups, kind of like a bill in congress that must be passed by both houses. It's not like the more numerous AS pilots can impose their JCBA will on the HA pilots simply by 50%+ 1 vote. But as someone pointed out, even within the HA group, the cargo pilots are a small minority.

Sort of.

It would have made the most $ business sense to sell AS to UA or maybe DL. Or maybe buy B6.

But given the regulatory climate, and the egocentric nature of the AS HQ and BOD, it did start to look like AS would need to be the surviving entity. So it came down to either acquire a distressed domestic airline and double down on domestic NB, or buy a distressed WB operator and spread their wings internationally. Could have gone either way from where I sat.

I think more people are concerned about the implications of a fleet being erased and those pilots being dispersed into all the other bases. Ohhhhh right we know , we know! No one, not one person wants to bid a mainland base 🤣🤣 keep going with that one bud , no one buys it.

Has an arbitrator ever dealt with B scale contract acmi flying in a merger? Might not go the way you are hoping for. Will be funny to watch your misguided arrogance quashed in the coming years.