current AS policy policy is two flights,
we currently have a hotel policy LOA in the new contract. shows before 7am you get a hotel covered by the company. End after 10pm get a hotel. Less than 24 hours between trips you get a hotel

again it’s a LOA for the hotel policy so it can be canceled with 60 days notice, don’t come here for the hotel LOA new contract is pretty good, easy flying indeed, with new contract increased flexablity and ability to pick up but nothing like WN. I’d pick the brain of a WN guy and a AS guy and see gets you like more. You can pm me if you have any more in-depth questions

It’s no easy call but we at AS don’t have the flexibility like WN and our flying is a lot of Hawaii and vacation spots and by that I mean you’ll launch early on day 1 do a 24 hour overnight and come back late the next day, so our style of flying just means less trips are commutable so take that for what it’s worth, yes it’s easy but lacks the efficient WN route network as we are all west coast

 

I am senior. ✔
I don't mind red-eyes✔
4 leg 4 days, commutable both ends✔

 

There are a lot of 4 day legs out of SEA when you fly through SE Alaska. You'll be assigned these on reserve when the weather is terrible or someone calls out sick because they don't like the captain assigned. As a whole our pilot group is awesome but the captains who enjoy SE who are not fun to be around are a very special breed of not fun to be around. They are fortunately few and far between.

There are also a lot of red eyes at Alaska. If you don't mind doing red eyes then that is a plus for AS but if you don't like them it would give me pause before coming here.

Last I spoke with friends at WN reserve at OAK went very senior. Reserve at AS is very JR. There is a reason for that. We did get some new rules and it is TBD how it works out for us. I'd call it a wildcard ATM.

If you have any more questions specific to AS I'd be happy to answer them here or offline. I can't speak for WN I have a few friends there but we try not to talk about work too much. Best of luck with your decision.

 

I second the commute and drive thing. Also for a data point I'm about 100K behind flyguy81 in terms of pay. Year 5 pay at AS.

 

so, you soft pay and work rules blow AK out of the water! If you were diagnosed with MS tomorrow when would your LTD benefits expire?

 

not with the new pay rates you are not. Oh and if you lose your medical you have Ltd to 65.

 

I agree that driving to work trumps any other metric, however not everyone agrees with that.

In regards to the quotes, LTD and STD are in the top three things we are working on changing at WN. I would no vote anything that didn't have a pay increase above inflation. I also hate red eyes and while you are not immune from them due to delays/weather etc at WN you can better avoid them. Given the OP has to commute regardless, I think WN is the better option for nothing else than having Denver. Its going fairly junior in both seats, is growing currently and the CEO said it is one of three cities that they want continues growth in.

Best of luck with your decision, I am sure you will be in a great spot either way.

 

Unless he's lying about 280K he would still beat my pay, even at the new rate. Also, my block time for the year is 797:05 as of my status card report generated this morning for December 31. I fly a lot. Because I bought a house in the SEA area in the last 5 years. I'm guessing his block time is less than mine so would his TAFB and days worked too. I'd love to know that information, in fact.

Maybe you'll considering buying your FO a beer on the odd occasion even after our new "massive" pay bump. Because a lot of us are still just going to be paying off debt we have accumulated trying to make ends meet the last year or two. Living in the most expensive cities in North America with record inflation. I just filled up my early 2000s Japanese import car with a 10 gallon tank for over 50$. That was me splashing out, because I didn't drive to the casino 20 min out of my way home each way, to save 5$ and get it under 50$ Since I only had 12 hours off between my single leg flights with 24 hour layovers that only pay 10 hours.

I love to hear how much money I make though. Please tell me more. So far, I've only seen a single "extra" check for just over 3K after taxes so far.

When I stroke out from the stress of King County property taxes, having to sort out winter tires for my small import car because it's snowing and I don't want to die driving to work and being told by my coworkers how much money I make when I'm barely holding on, it's good to know I won't be living on the street. Hopefully.

 

The answer is ALWAYS Delta

 

LTD definitely needs fixing at SWA, the current pattern bargaining environment should ensure that's cost plus industry standard in the next CBA. But as of today, it's sub industry standard. All these cbas are still bearing the wounds of years past.