At least the overwhelming majority side isn't reluctant. Some of us moved on, whereas your screenname says it all.

 

The fact that my screenname triggers you so much is beyond parody. It's just a name.

You're out here trying to psychoanalyze your fellow ex-VXers and it's honestly one of your more pathetic endeavors. You are notoriously terrible at understanding your fellow pilots, and you constantly find yourself in a tiny minority of opinions. You should stick to telling everyone how awesome your QOL is.

 

No. It's you and about 4 others. Please don't put the rest of us VXers in your subgroup. It's an embarassment. Most of us have accepted what happened and moved on. It's for the HAL pilots who are frequenting this subforum since the announcement. You are doing a disservice to them by creating FUD. You might think it's funny, but screenames like ReluctantEskimo, Ala5ka, and Disappointment are those who just can't let it go and still live in the past. You are now exuding your version of getting screwed by AS, and writing FUD statements towards HAL pilots. That's not good.

 

I haven't said one word about my opinion on this merger. You are projecting what you think I feel based on my screenname. You're a fool.

I personally am optimistic. I think this could be great for the airline and my personal goals, if they play it right. And that's a big if.

And like I said before, all we have is history to reference from. Let's review:

We have the history of the Virgin America acquisition. That's not good. Alaska basically took gates and nothing else. The brand, the routes, the aircraft, are all gone within 8 years of the announcement. That's not FUD. That is a fact.

Then we have history of other airlines doing it right. The management team from America West has risen to become leaders of the largest airline in the world. It's a great underdog story of good timing and choices resulting in a global juggernaut. Regardless of how you feel American is run, they have upscaled nicely.

There is also history of airlines doing it wrong. Bryan Bedford and Republic wanted to be a player and acquired Frontier and Midwest Express. It was poorly run and poorly timed, and it imploded within a couple of years.

3 mergers. 3 different outcomes. Is Alaska leadership up to the challenge? Decide for yourself. In my opinion, this merger is going to require a huge philosophy shift for them.

Don't berate anyone for thinking differently than yourself.

 

Your good example is America West? From a pilot perspective, it's only worth it if you're looking back today. Since 2007 to about 2012, they had severe infighting, voted out ALPA, and got USAPA using pure majority numbers of East versus West. The SLI was done first and then a JCBA - that never came, because they didn't like the result of the underdog AWA getting the "windfall" on the East side. It changed ALPA Bylaws going forward and now that is why the JCBA is done first, and SLI second. West v East was a complete mess and the true synergies weren't recognzied until the AA merger. Today, sure West guys are flying widebodies. But the post merger years were terrible.

Republic Frontier/Lynx/MidEx was a complete mess, the only recent example so far of a major trying to merge with a regional. Agreed with your sentiment on that, it was done horribly and fell apart.

VX/AS. The planes are gone, one base is gone, and some routes disappeared. We still maintain slots and operate from the east coast cities VX did. They just don't all go to SF or LA anymore. Importantly - every single VX pilot maintained their job. The biggest complaint was losing the NY base and having to relocate or commute to California for this job. If we are to be honest, we can't ignore the result of the pandemic. Business flying is still very dead. It just hasn't come back. Most of VX's north east routes to DC, NY, Boston were business oriented. Few leisure travelers here. If Virgin existed standalone, it would have been forced to change its business model.



There are other mergers that were left out. NWA/Delta. And even that closed MEM, eventually closed CVG, parked 747s within a couple years, parked 777s eventually (mostly due to the pandemic). CO/UA is was able to keep pre-merger bases and hardly much change to the fleet model (Continental was simple already with 737, 757/767, and 777s). The SLIs for both these airlines went fairly well, all things considered.


Like you, I am optimistic. Hoping for the best for both sides

 

And you, Shy Guy, are disservice to this pilot group by consistently stirring up "Kool-Aid" drinking garbage. You have a bad name on the line, because you are a braggart about being a young Captain (and entitled), and you stir up trouble on pilot boards that keep booting you off.

Please do us all a favor and take a long break on this board; your opinions are far from representative of this pilot group. Moreover, your profile even indicates you have posted nearly 9,000 posts on Airline Pilot Central. Just stop. But you can't, can you, it's a compulsion.

 

ALPA integration is such a limited view. Who cares about union infighting? That's not anything that can dealt with by management except try to smooth things over with more money.


My point is that the America West's management team, an airline smaller than what Alaska is now, were the winners to lead the largest airline in the world. Parker and Isom had no international experience, but embraced and learned and grew.

Is the Alaska management team capable of the same growth? History makes me suspicious.

 

It's in their interest to not mess it up and growth this new entity. Anyone else buying Hawaiian today (AA, DL, UA, even SW) would be doing it to take out a competitor. I think we can agere VX was taken out to eliminate a competitor and prevent B6 from obtaining it. This feels different - merging to actually grow and compete better with the big 4.

 

I recall the charm offensive in 2015-2016. They said all the right things then, too. In fact, I could see that their track record with Virgin may be bad enough for DOJ to block this acquisition.

Time will tell.

 

I've met far more at AS that are along the lines of his thinking vs. yours. In fact, I think I've only actually met one VX grouch in person. Everything else has been stuff I've read here from the 'dirty 30'. The vast majority of former VX pilots I've met are consummate pros.