Nobody cares unless it impacts money or time off. At that point, people will do whatever necessary to maximize those two things.

VX people (many, even most, commuters from afar) have a lot of QOL to lose. Threats include AS workrules, scheduling practices, and the possible (likely?) shift of buses off transcons. While VX rules don't guarantee good QOL, practically speaking it has been status quo.

So that could create movement between fleets on the part of senior VX folks if buses lose good schedules.

First of all, I’m not at either Alaska or Virgin, but I speak as a pilot. I think you view what pilots want incorrectly. You are assuming we bid an aircraft based on routes. I don’t know of many pilots that do that. Most pilots bid on where they want to be based. If a pilot lives in one of the domiciles then they will bid that base no matter what the routes are. If the pilot commutes then they will bid the base that allows for the best commute, not the route.

For me, I bid the base that I want to live in and I really don’t care what the routes are or if I fly a Cessna 172 or a Boeing 747. I just want to be based where I live. If you want to know how people will bid, it will be on where they want to be based, not the routes the aircraft are flying.

But if one base flies mostly 2hr North/South routes up and down the west coast and another base flies lots of trips with a N/S flight followed by a transcon, leading to higher average daily credit and therefore more days off, it could be worth it to commute to the base with more efficient trips.

Commute vs. live in base? :eek:

I’m not sure you could build a schedule with such a strong contrast between different bases’ lines to make a person do that.
I know, nothing is impossible, but choosing to leave your home base to commute is a pretty extreme decision.
At least I like being married...:cool:

I thought the majority of VX pilots were commuters anyway?


I mean heck, nobody can live in San Francisco on an airline pilot's salary... :eek:

Erm, YMMV. I don't know what airline you fly for, but that's not universal.

A good number of SFO United 747 pilots displaced to SFO 777 so that they would be able to continue to go 'home' to their Asian 'wives'.
A good number of pilots bid the LAX/SFO 737 so that they can fly to the Hawaiian islands.
When the ORD 747 closed, a good number displaced to SFO 747.

I've known more than a few pilots that chase the flying.

Like you, I bid base first and everything else after that. But it's definitely not universal. And after base, I'd bid for the equipment flying transcons over short routes.

I know a few pilots who live in LA and bid SFO for better flying.

Pay is theoretically equal so it depends on how they build the schedules. Will they build the east-west full of 24 hour overnights on the east coast and SFO - 10 days off for everybody? Will they fill the north-south with 14 hour 2 days - 84 hours credit for 6 days of work anybody?

Anyway, it's about where you balance pay and qol...for 90% of pilots, especially in the AS/VX system, where you fly is irrelevant.

I would expect 85-88 depending on the month, 14-16 off... mix of almost everything. Not a lot of commutable trips, sadly. Hopefully that will change going forward though.

Sounds like a commuter airline schedule, been there done that. Complete crap.