Alaska Poolie Info
 

Anyone have any updated info on how large the pool is or how long of a wait for ground school?

Last I heard is its currently at 8 months, but those newly hired have been told over a year wait with about 40 hired in the last month and more interviews continuing next week.

Is this wait typical with the other majors? Why would they keep hiring with a wait list that long?

Because they can afford to. LOTS of guys willingly give up higher paying jobs for the QOL of living in the PacNW. Alaska will always have more applicants than they can handle.

They staff very lean, so a lot of the hiring is driven by the slack times in the schedule when they don't need IPs to fly the line and more sim time is available.

The latest word I heard from one of the CP's is that they working to drain the pool considerably before hiring too many more. A buddy of mine finally got a class date after the new year after interviewing last Spring. They're painfully aware that the longer someone sits in the pool, the more likely they'll go elsewhere. The goal, I'm told, is to offer someone the job along with a class date within about a month or so. We'll see.

The other part of our ability to make people wait is how few pilots we hire anyway.....We are a small airline with very low airframe growth and very low retirement numbers....we can easily afford to lose people from the pool because we dont need them all anyway....They always plan to lose some

Anyone want to post month interviewed and scheduled class month, had heard they were trying to clear the pool out by July

I hope so, that would be excellent.

I heard there were 75 QX'ers in the pool! Over 10% of the whole pilot group.

Really, 75? Last I saw on the Crew Census before they took it down it said 60-something in attrition and I figured that was the total count. Hope you're right!

Almost 6 months in the pool and still no class date...

Hey, it keeps you from looking for "other options"....

maybe it's mission accomplished?

Two different and apparently successful strategies for keeping people from going elsewhere.

I met with the recruiters at Oshkosh this summer and a few days later received an email from Alaska HR stating that they wanted to interview me once they had interview slots available, haven't heard a word since. Anyone else have a similar experience like this?

That is about what I heard too, but most seem to be jr FOs. Not really helping any of us who hope to ever get off reserve.

A good number are captains.

I imagine it's a mix of junior captains, former mil FO's, and FO's with lots of the right boxes checked - probably in that order.

As for what gets your off reserve at QX, as of late you have to be on the upper half of the list for that to happen. I haven't flown in over a month.

You haven't flown in over a month? What base? Im getting called everyday, I must be doing something wrong.

You're SEA or PDX based, that's why!

Well I can eat my words on the one, I got called a few hours later and I'm on a trip now. Still, overall for the past couple months I have probably flown on 25% of my reserve days. I'm in BOI. Pretty typical out here. We've had to send people back to the sim because they didn't meet consolidation.

Anyone have any clue what training pay take home looks like, as with all things variable based on taxes etc but rough idea..also any latest on class dates filled...

I hear that there might be 2 more positions opening up. Too soon?

I interviewed and received the CJO June 18th. Still no class date. I did hear some guys in my interview group are in a Feb. 8th class. I'm guessing that the class size doesn't necessarily correspond to the size of the interview groups. So I'm also guessing I'm next up to bat. Hopefully soon...:cool:

Thanks for the info, keep us updated!

There isn't "training pay," but new hires are paid 75 hours of first year FO pay. No per diem during new hire training , as you are considered SEA based until OE complete. You are on your own for housing during training.

After taxes my take home paycheck was $1450 every two weeks during training.

Interviewed June 17-18. No class date.

less than most of the other regional airlines......

Did the hiring stall out as of Feb 8? Seems like calls for late Feb and March should have went out by now...

For horizon guys word was they were spreading us out so as to not have a class full of horizon folks in one class, makes sense, just wonder what that equals to in terms of time in the que, anyone have insight into that?

queue
[kyo͞o]
NOUN
BRITISH
a line or sequence of people or vehicles awaiting their turn to be attended to or to proceed.
synonyms: lineup · line · row · column · file · chain · string · [more]
computing
a list of data items, commands, etc., stored so as to be retrievable in a definite order, usually the order of insertion.
archaic
a braid of hair worn at the back.
VERB
BRITISH
take one's place in a queue:
"in the war they had queued for food"
synonyms: line up · wait in line · form a line · fall in · form a queue · [more]
computing
arrange in a queue.

Aww... He was close! Linguistically, that was a pretty good stretch for a pilot. ;-)

Interviewed and got the CJO on July 1st. Haven't heard anything except the letter all the poolies received. Heard a nasty rumor about the board asking them to slow down hiring and cancel March and April classes. Please say it's not so.....This has been worse than waiting for the interview call. Anyone have any updates?

I haven't heard that rumor. I did talk to someone who should know yesterday and he said that he expected the pool to be drained by June.

Ok, that's good to hear.

I think it will be drained....,Some to Delta, some more to United, a couple to American and the rest to Fedex and SWA

Unless they are xx rejects. The only ones left will be the die hard Alaskan wannabes.

This would be the best outcome. It's about high time that poolies and other candidates go elsewhere. Anglers need a wake-up call when it comes to hiring and retaining pilots and the sooner this wake-up happens, the better.

We could use the leverage in negotiations.

That has a nice ring to it.....However, it is important to remember that Alaska Airlines is a very small, very slow growing, west coast airline.The hiring needs are so small as a total percentage of supply that they will never have a problem filling a class. They invest so little in the recruitment process that it does not bother them to lose a bunch of applicants sitting around in a pool....

Received job offer June 18. Offered February 29 class.