Are they still pooling at new hires at Alaska?

As far as I can tell they are. There are still CJOs who got their offer a couple of months ago who haven't been assigned a class yet so there's a pool going on

Yes, April CJOs are starting to receive class dates. There are still April/May/June/July pilots in the pool.

That's a pretty shallow pool for AS.
July? That was what, one week ago?? :rolleyes:
They're saying they expect two classes a month, (12 each), as far as they can see.
Another 100 this year, 280ish next year, +VX. Big numbers for small fry.

Especially for not taking on many new aircraft. Part of it I had heard is to increase block hours to give us better on time performance, and also increasing aircraft utilization (more all nighters). Dunno what all the rest of the hiring is for.

Just a quick question.... but how does increasing block hours IMPROVE on-time performance? It would actually seem to be counter productive to try and fly more with the same amount of metal and expect a more on-time operation.

OTP is based in on scheduled in time + 14 minutes. If a flight that normally takes 1+45 is consistently 25 minutes late, you just pad it with 15 extra minutes of block and all of the sudden it now appears to be on time according the the DOT.
The airlines that pad their block more are on time more. It costs money and decreases utilization to increase block times, so airlines don't like doing it for that reason.
The real issue with padding block is that it doesn't get to the root of the problem, it just masks it. If a station ground ops crew is performing poorly or there is an ATC issue, it gets buried by padding block.
Crews like it because airlines normally pay on scheduled block or actual block, whichever is greater.

Today's rumor is no more hotels for classes after September.
Unable to confirm.

That sucks if true. But I'd expect that from these people

Delta doesnt pay for hotel rooms either