That's what I thought.

Might an extreme bleeding-edge junior CA or two get downgraded if they're not willing to commute? Maybe. We'll have to wait and see.

 

It’s not a percentage, you are inputting the base position number. So if you put 30, you’re saying you want it if in the top 30 physical spots of LAX FO, not percentage.

I don’t see how you bid your own base and seat but at a higher base position. I guess you could try it? LAX at 30 positions, then SAN, and then back it with LA without any qualifier.

 

Only reason why I bother responding to drivel like this is because there are people applying to Alaska that do see your bot like FUD and can get nervous. There are also HA pilots probably reading these threads wondering why 3 people on here continuously moan and complain about any news that pops up on here that need to read some facts.

SFO and LAX were predominantly VX pilots and there were a bunch that lived in California before the AS acquisition. You were hired 4 years after the AS/VX announcement and 2 years post SLI, and AS had only an LAX base during that time. After SLI, there were a bunch of 737 CAs who jumped ship from the 737 and came over to the Airbus just to be based in SFO. Then you had the sport bidders who jump around base by base to get their 5 moving days off a month who still do it today.

This entire bid, over two bid cycles, is for 90 CAs and 80 FOs out of 3300 pilots on the current seniority list with more new hires incoming in January to fill any vacancies left over. Per the 05-26 bid, LAX has 14 FO slots unfilled and 44 SFO FO slots unfilled because nobody who comes to AS wants to be based in either base (they're at UA or DL where it's like totally a million times better times a million). That also goes for the SFO CAs who bid down there because SFO is the most junior CA and FO base in the system, and both seats drop all of their trips in SFO to pickup trips in other bases. You can be based in any base in Alaska's system and post your garbage trip for grabs, and 75% of the time a SFO pilot will take it and have it up on the trade board.

What happens during any change, or position bid, or JCBA or CBA or anything in 121 is people get affected. There are 3300 AS pilots and San Diego is coming, and it'll affect 5% of this pilot group. 800 pilots already are based in CA and those who don't commute know how marginal income tax works. Most who want San Diego already live down there or have family or homes coming to them thanks to Prop 13 don't get affected much by taxes. You clearly know nothing about California, but many people don't need 4000sqft homes on 2 acres to buy a "$3-5m" home. I also don't think 95% of this pilot group is going to sit here and fight for the bottom .5% of the pilot group who hate their lives already on reserve as a CA and have other pilots junior to them who want their spot.

 

He probably would have never been awarded captain if life was great as a junior pilot. One of the senior pilots would have taken it already.

 

[MOD EDIT]


Also, oh wait:

https://www.enginecowl.com/as-aa-slot-lease-lhr/

Almost like you don’t understand how the airline industry works as much as you’d like to think.

 

He doesn't know how anything works. Some of us have watched him complain about the same stuff for years, at multiple different jobs, on another forum. He will continue this path with great confidence, which will continue to make him a bitter and unenjoyable CA to fly with (as evidenced by people on this very forum, and the fact that he circulates in the SEA FO chat groups). It is sad that he won't do some work on himself to make even a little bit of change.

 

Next you're going to tell me that the cheap housing has almost no traffic on the drive to SAN. The comical thing is that I owned a home in the SF Bay and dealt with prop 13. Sure it's better than what I am dealing with in WA but not by as much as you'd think. There are so many add ons to your property tax to pay for schools, open space etc. You can count on your property taxes going up every year. Sure it can't be adjusted to your home's value but it will go up. I'd encourage anyone to open up Zillow and check the housing prices anywhere remotely close to the airport and do some math. The rest of this post is just as false as what I've addressed. Other than the fact that most pilots at AS don't care that a lot of people will be displaced from their bases. Even though some were forced down to SFO on the last reduction bid. It's wild that the pilot group is cheering this on.

 

I love how it drives you and especially word302 insane when I talk about how much I enjoyed my time at SkyWest. But you’ll just completely ignore it to prove some kind of point.

 

You can bid around it, early shows/late finish will be fine. Also you can sit SC reserve anywhere in SD county.



It's not going to be much better or worse than any of the other AS bases. ANC is it's own kind of special but sure isn't cheap either.

There's no point in arguing about domicile shuffles, that's a company business decision. The only pilots at the company who might have any influence on such decisions is the SEA/MEC crowd, and apparently they've been able to block the SAN base for many years. Of course people who live in San Diego county are happy, everybody gets their turn in the barrel in this industry. Don't need to feel bad when it benefits you (because it won't always).

 

I bet the drive from Gig Harbor or Everett or Olympia to Seatac is a dream with no traffic every day. Again, many people aren't going to pack their home up from mother Seattle to move down to California. 25% of this pilot group lives down there, including HA pilots who commute from San Diego to HNL. People know how much it costs to live in San Diego, because almost 3.5 million people live down in San Diego County. I have personally met a bunch of pilots who commute from SAN to SFO or drive up to LAX. Many others also live in Temecula and Murrieta who drive the 2.5 hours to LAX in awful traffic. Why do you think SNA trips out of LAX go senior? You think pilots love the McDonald's and Carl's Jr there and the short runway with continuous GA traffic?

Nothing I have posted here is false. I think the only thing that most people on here hope is that only you end up getting reduced so you can finally get some sleep. The rest of the pilot group at Alaska can at least try and be happy that there are 75 737s on order, and more 787s on order that are on the way with more international destinations. The airline is growing, but not at the pace you'd like which is hiring 2000 pilots a year for the next 5 years. United and Delta are doing that though.