I'm just curious. Do many of you believe flying for an airline such as Alaska Airlines whether or not they were in good or bad shape would end up boring after a while due to the fact that you fly the same routes pretty much all the time? Would you recommend trying to get a job at an airline that has more routes or is an airline job an airline job? Just curious. Alittle insight would be great. Thanks

 

You have got to be kidding? Have you not ever heard the definition of flying? “Hours of boredom, punctuated by moments of stark terror? <g>. . Alaska would be a GREAT job!

You are going to be limited, regardless of where you work, by your seniority. I sure would rather be flying into BOI (if that is a junior route) for Alaska . .than JFK, PHL or EWR or any other sucky East Coast city. The job is what you make it and it seems to me Alaska’s “routes” are a LOT more exciting than some of the others I could think of.

 

Well that's what I was saying...I was just looking to see if anyone had any different opinions about joining an Airline with more route service so when you reach that point there are more options for you.

 

My near 30 year experience was that there is a lot of advantage to flying the same route(s) all the time. At least, if you enjoy where you end up on the layover. I had mountain bikes, ski and fishing gear stored in the bellman’s closet at YVR -and other places for years, it seems.

Of course, we had a lot of long layovers, probably unlike most of the majors. Skiing with the crew in YVR, BOI, SLC, DEN & RNO. Fishing in ANC and BOI. Biking in YVR, ANC, OAK, SFO & GEG.

The main part of familiarity though, is safety. Over time you figure out what can bite you and knowing the routes, approaches and airport layouts like the back of your hand makes for a safer operation, in my view.

Of course, a lot of my bidding choices were determined by how easy it was to commute to and minimum departures per month. That also meant flying the same trip month after month. You do and put up with stuff for lifestyle.

 

Variety of routes isn't really a divider between desireable airline jobs and non ~. What separates the most sought after pilot jobs is usually things like pay, retirement benefits, and now in 2005 stability.

When pilots are at the regional level they know their routes are already pretty limited. Once you graduate to a national or major airline level career, you then have a great variety of routes to fly. In my 16 years I don't recall any pilot discussing with me his boredom over the routes he'd been flying.