Alaska Air Hiring
 

What's the scoop? Bueller? Bueller?


I'm still holding my breath.

Don't hold you breath! Haha. Haven't heard a word lately...

Still filling classes from the pool. Hopefully another bid in the near term, to drain the pool and kickstart another interview round.

~20 left in hiring pool, next class in November with the possibility of putting the remainder of the pool in training before Christmas.

Interviews in 2014 for in excess of 30 pilots, final 2014 number to be determined by fleet size and retirements.

On Oct 29. 4 males 2 females, started class. From USAF, Skywest, Horizon and Allegiant. + 3 returning from LOA. AS seems to hire a good mix of folks. Slow hiring should continue. I would not expect more than 50-80 next year. And that would be a lot.

AS is small, fiscally conservative. Hiring is slow, growth is slow. They just posted the best quarterly earnings ever in the history of the company. Upgrades are about 12 years. We have a fairly young pilot group. Not a lot of retirements. If you want to work here living in the west at an online station would be best. In a base even better. Schedules for commuting are not that great.

I was at several airlines in the 80's, living in the east and was glad to be hired here. I was unemployed and sleeping in my car. There were times I thought about leaving but glad I didn't. Overall it's a pretty good place to work. But If I lived east of DEN and did not want to move.... Other airlines are starting to hire and you would probably be happier somewhere else. Commuting sucks. I know I do it.

IMO in the next 5 years AS will probably be bought by someone bigger (DL would be my first choice) or will buy someone else.

They are very picky right now on who they hire because they can be. Lots of super qualified people. but it should loosen up in the next year or so.

Good luck.

Thanks man. I live in ANC and have no desire to migrate to the states. ANC always seems to be an over-saturated place when it comes to pilots.

Just heard from a fairly reliable source… Hiring window will open around January- February. Conservative hiring estimates about 60 in 2014 with 60 upgrades.
Cheers

Any carrier that has the balance sheet to buy AS will have the seniority to eventually displace a large percentage of AS employees...it will be back to sleeping in cars for many.

New class of 6 starts next week. Position bid later this month will determine when the remainder of the pool starts training. Still a lot of optimism to get one or two December classes.

Anyone who has an active application should ensure it is current.

"Reliable" source said resumes are currently being reviewed for a near term interview...maybe before end of year. Number to interview was not disclosed.

--Good Luck!

How? From what I know, once you submit your app, there is no more chance to edit it.

Just throwing this out here...but one day (a few years down the road...) I'd really like to be SEA based...probably to hang my hat. In the long run, base (particularly if it's PNW) is probably equally, if not more, important to me as equipment and upgrade times, especially since I'm young. Obviously AK probably gives me the best chance for this.

Any other airlines that have SEA bases? Also, anyone from AK willing to PM me to answer a couple of questions?

Cheers :)

I can't figure out anyway to add another résumé either.

Actually, I do not know either how the program works. I guess the takeaway is the powers that be were actively looking at candidates for interviews last week.

New hire class of 6 begins Monday (Nov 18)...still a few in the pool to place.

Crazy Canuck, Delta has a pilot base in Seattle as well.

Here's an interesting tidbit from our MEC

RETIREMENTS
<<At last count, an additional 25 pilots have submitted paperwork to retire by the end of November, with only a third of those being at or close to the mandatory retirement age. This brings the total for the year to 59. The Company previously estimated only 36 pilots were going to retire based on their survey earlier in the year.>>

Hmmm, 5th stripe or a larger retirement?
 

Boys and girls, can you say

BOND RATES!

Any suggestions on the resume format for the AS app? If it is anything like the Horizon window, they have you put in a text version in a drop box on their career page. I have converted my current resume to simple text with no formatting but honestly it doesn't look pretty. Any help would be appreciated.

Soon to be transitioning military pilot.

Hooveb

Yes, You will just take all the text from your "pretty" resume and paste it into the online application process. Don't worry that it doesn't look "pretty," AS is aware of what they want and need. Good Luck

How many years before you can actually get SEA at Delta? Over 10?

Everyone always asks these questions and the answer is always the same. Between 1 and 10 years haha. Shouldn't be that long but it's definitely senior

Jugheadf15,

Thanks, that is what I figured but we spend so much time pimping a "pretty" resume it seems odd. Thanks again.

email
 

Got an email from Alaska today asking me to re-apply to an F/O job listing that will be available "soon." Anyone else get the email?

I heard that it will be open 12-16 tell 12-29

Pilot Application Window
We are opening our pilot application window from 16 – 29 December.
We are opening our pilot application window from 16 29 December. All previous applications in the system are deleted. If you know pilots that are interested in applying or reapplying please let them know. We are looking for strong candidates that will be a good fit at Alaska Airlines. Please feel free to provide them with the information below to help them successfully submit their application.

Internet Explorer 8 or above, running on Windows, is the browser that is strongly recommended to successfully submit an application. If another browser is used, the application may not come through successfully

A few helpful tips when applying -

· Before applying, we recommend that browsing history including temporary Internet files are cleared and pop-up blockers disabled.

· Gather all paperwork, including work history (we require 10 years of work history to be added to the application), resume etc. - before applying for the position.

· Once in the application, please use the links provided to return to the previous page if required. The back button is not compatible with the system.

For 2013, we hired 56 new pilots and upgraded 40 FOs to the left seat. While this is
very preliminary planning and is always subject to change at a moment’s notice, 2014 should provide room for ~20% more new hires (66) and ~75% more upgrades (70) versus 2013.

Alaska Air Hiring
 

Rumor is 100. Good luck everyone!

What does this mean?

It means the A plan lump sum payout is determined by the bond rates. If the bond rate goes up, the lump sum payout goes down. An AS buddy of mine who just retired told me that if he had waited until after January 1 he would have lost more than $80K out of his lump sum.

Its a powerful incentive to take the money and run.

Thanks...noob here...

Looks like the Alaska window is open for business.

Any idea what base is the most likely to get for new guys?

How much did the pay scale change with the latest contract? Anything to year one?

According to my AS buds, most go to ANC, but some have gotten LAX right out of the box. They say you have to wait a couple bids to get to SEA, though PDX is a possibility.

Actually, I got SEA in my first bid. No one has made it into PDX for a while. One can get LAX but most do go to ANC. Things are always changing of course!

There's about a 20/80 split in each class of LAX vs. ANC base. Getting your preferred base is subject to timing: If hired during a base position bid, there is a chance you can get to SEA right away. Worst case scenario: plan on ANC base for 12-18 months.

Worst case scenario plan for DTW or JFK! :eek:

worse yet, re-apply next round!

Latest picture shows newhire vacancies in LAX, SEA and ANC. PDX is senior and looks to remain that way.

The long tours in ANC seems to be disappearing. The company actually hired some folks from there who want to be there...go figure.

The last couple bids have had vacancies in all domiciles BUT PDX.

1st year pay right now is:

$52.95

as of 01APR2014, it will be:

$53.74

Reserve guarantee of 79 hrs/month and perdiem $2.15/hr.

Alaska Air Hiring
 

Is not using IE 8 a deal breaker? Since I don't own a PC (Mac user) I started the process on Chrome then intended on submitting from IE at work but hit submit button instead of save. Am I screwed? I got an email from AS saying it was submitted but there was no content in email. Only the subject line saying application was submitted. Thoughts?

You are good. That's all I got using IE.