lol the real third step

 

lol little vacation sierra never hurt nobody 🤢

 

While this makes sense from the company business standpoint, it really became a reminder how good the relaxed discipline culture (non-safety related) at Hawaiian is. Nobody gets questioned when calling in sick. Heck, they know damn well the guy had an undesired reserve day placed in the middle of his ski week with the boys, with pass travel to prove it! Nobody bats an eye.

This culture is unfortunately an intangible benefit that would be near impossible to write in a contract how it currently exists. It benefits the pilot group with not just schedule flexibility, but seniority and double time. Sick accrual is also the highest of the airlines. Near retirement pilots commonly call out almost every other trip. The result is faster upgrade, more pilots hired junior to you for reserve coverage, or more double time opportunities. Also, a junior reserve (or semi senior for double pay) gets to enjoy any other trip instead of a guaranteed soul sucking LAX redeye plus inter island deadhead.

It's a win for pilots, the company not so much. But hey, the pilots are not worried about the company when asking for more pay/schedule flex etc in contract negotiations. Don't worry HA pilots don't make as much as the big four anyway. In fact they value QOL over pay. Since it is likely HA won't keep this benefit they need to gain an alternative in JCBA, not just forget about it.

 

First time posting on here.. Just wondering if there's any current internal news/rumors coming down the pipe about the next hiring window. Last I heard anything was the mass email sent out from Scott Day back in Feb. Is that still sounding like the plan (opening hiring again this summer and training ramping up Q4?)

Also, just curious about the attrition numbers at Alaska.. has that slowed substantially? I know the big 3 are slowing, but 1000 new hires a year is still insane historically.

Thanks for time everyone.

 

No new rumors that I know of, attrition last month was 2. That probably won’t change until the big 3 and SW start hiring in bigger numbers again.

 

No more hiring this year, and likely the same next year, 100+ downgrades this fall. This is from a friend in flight ops and their plans change frequently so take it for what it’s worth, which isn’t much.

 

OTZ said 40 downgrades. Your source is wrong!!!

 

This is a temporary dip in Pilot hiring! Downgrades would be a big mistake and would show that Flight Ops is out of touch with reality.
I guess time will tell…

 

Downgrades = you would be dumb to come to Alaska unless it is just a "touch and go".

Will be interesting to see how flight ops leadership plays their hand. They have been known in the past to squeeze a penny too hard.

Cheers - Rob.

 

I didn't hear about the downgrades but I did hear that they are overstaffed even in the Summer and will likely be looking into options like leaves, incentive lines, etc. If no hiring they will probably need a bid of some kind to rebalance the bases to match the flying going forward.