Definitely the regional job. Although it doesn't have to be the lower 48... Pen Air or Raven would work as well. Having Jet/turbine airliner time will make you more marketable than the C208.

 

Penair just had one Captain go to Alaska. The upgrade time is dropping really fast, so you could upgrade in a couple years. One benefit to Ravn is the pay rates. Their first year pay is $50/hr.

 

It's not going to be a coupe years. However, I will agree with you that it is in fact coming down.

 

Agreed. Most junior CA upgrade is almost 9 years to the day and that should trend to 7.5 year upgrade timeline by 2020-ish but hard to support anything faster than that.

 

My bad. I was referring to Penair.

 

I'd stay clear of the single engine C208 in AK if your goal is Alaska Airlines. I've heard straight from the System Chief Pilot's mouth that they care about twin turbine time. Whether it's in a 777 or a twin otter, it does not matter. Twin turbine is twin turbine to them. He went further to explain they don't care if it's in a 737 or not. He also iterated the importance of that twin-turbine time being multi-crew time.

I'd say RAVN/Corvus would be a good place to go for the short term, given your logbook/resume. They like twin turbine, multi crew AK time. Plus you could probably build some pretty good networking that way up in ANC.

my .02 worth. Good Luck Lane!

 

Here is an update on what is going on at Alaska. Keep in mind, I had an unique "in" to this event and by no means is your typical 121 guy with ALPA membership, all military and 135 charter. The purpose of this post? To show likely applicants that if you're trying to get on with Alaska by attending one of these events, you'll never get invited to the dance if you're not an ALPA member. Hate to sound cynical here, but sounds like they only want 121 guys to apply. Does that mean charter and military need not apply. You decide. This is a cut and paste:
Thank you for attending the Alaska Airlines Open House on Wednesday in Seattle. Our Alaska MEC volunteers and Alaska’s recruiters were pleased to have the opportunity to meet with so many great applicants. The time and effort you spent to be a part of this event is appreciated. Last night, Alaska’s recruiters called those pilots who were invited to return for formal interviews today. If you did not receive a call last night, it does not necessarily mean that you will not be called in the future. Alaska Airlines’ plans call for continued hiring, and it is possible that they will reach out to you at a later date.

The Alaska MEC is hopeful that this first event will not be our last, and that we will be able to offer similar events in the future for you, and for other ALPA pilots interested in flying for Alaska Airlines.

 

The ALPA event was only for current ALPA members. If you are not ALPA you could not get invited. However, we are hiring plenty of Military, corporate and non ALPA airline people. I have never seen a class with all 121 ALPA pilots.

 

I came from a non-ALPA carrier and attended as many of those events as I could manage. It took a while but eventually I got an interview and got in. I didn't have any special in beyond an internal letter of recommendation. The majority of my new hire class was from non-ALPA locations.

If you really want it, keep going regardless of events such as the above.

 

How many people had positive success at the alpa event?