Alaska management pathetically petty. Do you think other Fortune 500 companies spend their time thinking about a handful of fking hotel rooms? Horizon is in full meltdown because of their cheapness. You'd think they'd get a clue...but they won't.

 

What is mind boggling is that management chooses to keep their head in the sand. If the arbitrator's award is in favor of management, a high probability that Alaska will be the next Horizon. They want to jam Hawaiian rates down this pilot group but what they fail to realize is that Alaska is nothing like Hawaiian. Hawaiian has a niche in the islands and Alaska seems to think they have one in the PNW. One word - Delta. With the big 3 and FedEx/UPS forecasted hiring numbers, Alaska can end up in a perfect shiit storm. Petty is right!

 

I was thinking the same. How many will really fall into this for it to matter. Also Isn't Seattle known to have some pretty bad traffic congestion? So if you live just south of Bellingham how long will that take you to get to class and then back home?

 

20-30 miles might have been reasonably understandable for the "locals don't get lodging" play by these clowns in management.. maybe. But it is inconceivable that they believe it is acceptable for a "valued" new member of our company to drive up to 200 miles round trip per day at least 5 days per week while in new hire training... welcome aboard locals, we want to take first crack at you to show you how little we value your time, money, and resources.

 

This perfectly illustrates the biggest problem Alaska Airlines has going forward. Everyone in senior management rose through the ranks during the period when controlling costs was the only datum a manager was measured by. Now, 10 years later, we have an entirely different marketplace and we have a senior management team that is unable to chart a course through this new landscape. Giving hotels to all new hires is an absolute no-brainer, but this is a company that puts every expenditure under a microscope. This is a company where folks in flight ops wanted to make laminated deicing reference cards and put them in every airplane, about 150 or so. Their request got kicked back because they requested the cards be printed in color to make them easier to interpret. Management made them document that the added expense was necessary. That's pretty much all you need to know about Alaska.

 

 

Does AS have a system for pilots to reserve an AS jumpseat online/through Alaskaworld/etc ahead of time (eg, 10 days, 2 weeks, one month...?)

 

You mean like... DELTA?

 

No. First come first serve. From time to time, you may even have to teach a new CSA that AK, VX or QX pilots get the jump before other carriers.

 

Oh ok thanks