A wise friend once said “don’t believe it until you’re riding down the road on it.” Works well for aviation…

It’s my belief we would all be very wise to keep this in mind when voting on the JCBA.

Received an email today officially confirming classes after Feb 9 are paused until the fall. Bummer, was really looking forward to using that new training campus sooner rather than later.

Not the complete email but good info:

“I wanted to provide an update on our current hiring plan. Next week, we begin our final Q1 new hire class of 20 pilots starting on February 9th, and all positions for that class have been filled.

We will be pausing interviewing and hiring until this coming fall. We have a great deal underway, including opening two new pilot bases (737 SAN and 787 SEA) and preparing for our Europe flying that begins in April.

The current application window is now closed, and we plan to clear out all existing applications to allow for a fresh start this fall. If you are not already a part of our Talent Community, please click here to join. By joining the talent community, you will receive an email ahead of the next application window opening so you have plenty of time to prepare and apply.”

good news is UAL hiring over 2k this year and signs point to dl moving to close to 1.5k+. both great iffin you want the pnw. good luck.

UAL is not "great" for PNW. I would consider it "good", but you're committing to a lifetime commute. Depends on your life priorities I guess.

DL is probably a safe bet for a great career in SEA, as far out as anyone can reasonably predict.

~1/1.5 hour commute to SFO being one of their junior bases with upgrade times significantly less that at AS. Multi fleet. No merger integration. Growing airline. Idk sounds like you’d be missing out especially if you’re like rocky and live in Montana. Unless you live in PDX. Then yeah AS makes a lot of sense.

In my experience, the length of the commute flight (up to about 3-4 hours) is less significant than available options, company metal, wx, commuter competition, etc. But anyone could get sick of commuting over decades.

If I were young and lived in SEA, UA vs. AS would be a tough choice (knowing what I know now lol, maybe if I didn't have experience commuting I wouldn't care).

Also the big retirement wave is tapering off and the industry will be back to normal by 2035. Retirement induced seniority progression at the Big 3 is a factor now, but won't be forever.

Yeah SEA or PDX based pilots would have a hard time picking somewhere else I agree. Driving to work is leagues better than commuting.

just pointing out IF you had to commute and weren’t moving that there’s no reason to hang your hat (or coat) at an airline in particular.

Montana is the best, ain’t ever leaving, and we have family that is getting old among other reasons. I’ll be a lifetime commuter. I was stoked for Alaska, but not classing up for almost a year after the interview is certainly a gut punch. And if UA or DL calls in the meantime I’ll take the interview. I got a family to think about and care for, as I have learned the hard way before, it’s just business. A company has no problem laying someone off in a day, they’ll care for you and be “loyal” until they don’t need you. It’s sad. If I don’t get hired elsewhere and I do class up at Alaska, then darn it I’ll be super excited to be going there anyways. I’m not in a bad spot, just a holding pattern.

Yeah if you're commuting anyway, it doesn't matter much how far, up to about three hours block time.

Assuming it's one leg, multi-leg is a recipe for misery.

You can do anything temporarily if you're too junior to get the base you want. But I'd be very selective about what commute I'd commit to for an entire career.