The approach the company/management has towards the pilot group will not change with a new contract no matter how great that contract is. The contract is only one hurdle in the many hurdles facing the group. Pay only gets you so far when the company still hates dealing with their front line employees. No relationship is perfect between the two groups but it can be a hell of a lot better.

 

Things don't happen here daily as you imply but they do happen, and they happen a lot when there are operational difficulties. Such as snow in Seattle and the fact that April changes to May at the end of the month.

Personally I have dealt with:

- Short show call on reserve (less than 2 hours)
- Assignment over 15 hours on reserve
- Reassignment created due to an illegality where I was not given the option to pick an open flying trip, or drop the trip because I was over a certain amount of hours and was assigned a red eye trip. The scheduler hung up on me when I politely reminded them of these parts of the contract. The scheduler just repeated "I'm assigning you the trip" and hung up.

I have watched how the captains I have flown with are treated and I've witnessed them being treated far worse. Usually the conflicts arise from "grey area" language in the contract. For example one captain was on a line but the next month was on reserve. Schedulers attempted to make him DH after we finished our trip in Seattle to be in position for reserve in another city. The contract did not clearly show who was correct. In these cases typically the pilot loses. Also those who try and "do the right thing" are often punished by an uncaring CPO and schedulers. One captain attempting to make it to a family function called the CPO asking to be at an event. The CPO and schedulers created a horrible situation with a red eye trip that put the pilot in a far worse situation to try and make it to the family event. What the CPO and schedulers didn't realize is that I was watching this develop and learned through someone else's experience to use "third step" or sick time to be home for important events.

It appears you were in training during our last operational meltdown if you have been on the property for 10 months. It snowed in Seattle (gasp) and chaos ensued. Many of us were stuck away from family during Christmas because our return flight cancelled. We could not even contact the company to find out what was happening. I do not wish any of these problems on you and hope you continue with your wonderful honeymoon at your employer. Hopefully a new contract fixes many of the issues those of us who have been on the property longer than you have faced. I hope you continue to scratch your head and wonder why so many of us are upset with how we have been treated because you have been treated far better. That means that our union which is fighting for you and many volunteers have done their jobs well.

 

Any idea what the general times are lately from application submission to hearing back for an interview?

 

“Schedulers attempted to make him DH after we finished our trip in Seattle to be in position for reserve in another city. The contract did not clearly show who was correct.”



You cannot be made to DH to another city and then sit reserve in a hotel, unless you have a flight assignment out of that city that follows that day or after a layover. This was addressed a couple years ago by the union.

You are also entitled to your full 2 hrs from the first phone call/contact.

 

Yes. That is correct. The pilot planned on going home the last day of the month for his line and had planned family obligations when he was due to be home. The company wanted to fly him to DH to another city when we finished out trip, to be placed on rest for a flight assignment the next day, the first day of the next month when he was on reserve. Not a very good situation as he would never have gotten home and had planned family obligations.

 

If this place is so bad, how do they keep anyone in this market? Seems odd.

 

A huge frustration for me is working for a management culture that would rather pick up the pieces after a complete meltdown than try to prevent it and run a good operation. Pilots typically want to do the best job possible but frequently we aren't given the tools by management to do so. I've stopped apologizing for simple preventable shortcomings a long time ago, and they are frequent. Management culture will be hard to change. They seem to hire more managers just so they can take the fall for the higher ups. The fact that some VPs remain in their roles is mind boggling. Screw up to move up apparently. I'm not miserable but it really isn't an enjoyable culture. Hope things change here.

 

How dumb would it be to turn down a United CJO in order to take an Alaska one just on the basis that I don’t want to commute for my 35+ years left of my career and am dead set on living in the Seattle area.

For the record I’m at air groups red headed step child and know all the inner workings of why Alaska is terrible.

Thanks all

 

Since you have an idea of what you're getting into, that's a serious dilemma. Especially with a decent contract plausibly rumored.

The usual folks will be along to tell you you're an idiot for even considering AS. But they're not the ones who will commute for 35 years either (or they already do and misery loves company).

Living in base will make up for a lot of the difference in workrules. Lifetime compensation is obviously limited by fleet makeup, but you already know that.

Also 35 years is a long time. I'd be surprised if AS still exists in it's current form, but any M&A will retain the SEA hub otherwise why bother.

 

there are no general times. Mixed bag, anywhere from 3000 hours and up.