There weren't any changes to Alaska's rigs in the last contract. They are as follows:

5 hours per duty period
1 hour of credit per 2 hours of duty (rarely this)
1 hour of credit per 3.5 hours time away from base
International pay is $5/hour for captains, $4/hour of FOs
No night pay

Something Delta was able to solve in their last contract that we need is a solution to the low credit 3 day. We have pairings that report late, fly a redeye, layover 24 hours and fly home. You could effectively be gone for 3 calendar days and credit 12 hours.

Reserves get 12 days off--1 5-day block, 1 3-day block and 2 2-day blocks. You can trade days off with yourself as long as you keep your reserve blocks between 3 and 6 days long.

Long Call is an 11 hour call out and credits 75 hours. LCs can be converted up to 3 times per month, 2 hours credit for the first conversion, 1 hour credit for subsequent conversions. LCs are basically used first if they can be given enough notice.

Short Call is a 2 hour call out and credits 79 hours. The irony is that SCs, at least outside of SEA, tend to fly less than LCs, so you get paid more and fly less.

In the last contract reserves were given the ability to fly on "days off" for pay only. What this translates to, is a reserve could pick up a turn worth 6 hours on what was originally a day off and that pay goes above guarantee. A short call in this case would now be paid 85. This section of the contract is controversial. Some look at this as a benefit and some look at it like a give back. I've heard stories of pilots picking up 3 or 4 day trips on their 5 day off block and getting paid 100 hours for the month.

Bid block holders (BBH) are guaranteed 75 hours. Lines are built between 75 and 85. A pilot can trade up to monthly max plus 5 (usually 90). The company can flex up when needed. For instance, for July all bases have lines are build from 78-88. This effectively makes lines with slightly fewer days off.

BBH are technically only guaranteed 4 2-day blocks free from duty. The reality is, with other rigs, even the most inefficient lines will have 10 days off and usually the trips are late reports or early returns.

BBH can trade pilot to pilot up to FAR max and can also drop to 0 if they can find enough takers.

Vacation days are worth 3:30.

Accrual rate:
1-4 15 days
5-8 21 days
9-12 24 days
13-19 30 days
20-24 35 days
25-30 40 days
31+ 41 days

Vacations must be bid in 7 day blocks. I believe new in the latest contract, after vacations are awarded, pilots can trade with open blocks, vacated blocks due to upgrade and attrition or pilot to pilot. For instance, I was awarded a 14 day block in November and a 7 day block in September. I now have vacation in August, September, November and December.

New in this contract, should a BBH or reserve feel he or she isn't getting enough of this place, we can now pick up open flying on vacation days.

Training pays 4:40 per day in the sim. If you sim and then travel home on the same day, it pays 6:00. Travel to and from sim on a day without any other duty pays 3:30.

We bid for training days and slot times. We can bid to train early, in our base month or in our grace period.

I know you didn't ask for it, but thought I would offer it anyway.

July line stats*:

Average credit per duty period:

SEA 5:54 (15.5 days off)
ANC 5:43 (14.9 days off)
LAX 6:07 (15.4 days off)
SNA 5:17 (not broken out from LAX)
PDX 5:55 (15.9 days off)

Average layover 18:37 (Lots of 24 hour layovers in Hawaii and east coast skew the layover time high. If you have all west coast flying, taking a wag, layovers are more in the 12-16 hour range)

Average duty time 8:13

Average sit time 1:15 (all of those quick turns in Alaska and relatively quick outstation turns balance out the 2 to 3 hour hub sits). The company loosened up the pairing parameters and there are some 3:30 sits showing up in July.

*The MEC is having a meeting this afternoon and it looks like the company and the union might be agreeing to a different line solution. The pilots were not happy with fewer turn lines and longer sits. I'm not sure what leverage we had to get the company to change their mind, but it looks like it might happen.

 

We don't need extra pay to fly into Juneau. Flying in Alaska is so much fun, most of us would do it for free

 

To add to cesnacaptn's list; LCs may pick up trips that match their remaining reserve days. Let's say you have 3 days of reserve left in your block and a 3-day trip becomes available. You may go ahead and pick it up. I think that's a good way for LCs to have some semblance of quality of life every now and then.

 

Short call reserve in ANC is the bomb. 79 hours pay for flying about 30 hours (frequently less). Pick up a one day arctic turn for another 5 if you like and you beat the average line holder and flew less than half the hours. Last month, the #10 Captain in the base bid reserve and flew about 20 hours!
End of month average usage of PDX and LAX is about the same as ANC. SEA is another story. There is so much 3rd stepping in SEA that the reserves get abused. But that is just SEA good old fashioned brotherly ALPA love. I need this sunny weekend off, so I'll screw my buddy.

 

Wow almost looks like a carbon copy of the HAL contract from 2010, and seems heavily focused in overtime and picking up extra pay by giving up time off. And the reserve block thing makes it miserable to commute..

I'm guessing HAL will need to use DAL as the bar for our best contract because quite honestly you guys didn't really do much to raise it from when we did in 2010.

 

We're waiting for the industry to bring the 'A' plan back. The majority of us still have ours so that is a big cost to Alaska and a Hugh benefit to pilots in retirement. The actuarial payout for a 30 - 35 year Captain is between $2M -$3M depending upon years of service. Or in other words, worth $30k - $60k per year.

So before you start talking about raising the compensation bar, you should look at total compensation. In that regard HAL is WAY behind.

 

I certainly hope you're right, but I have a feeling you're not.

We have 15% of our pilots on the A plan, another 30% on A/B and the rest of us are on a direct 15.2% gross contribution to a 401K (industry average now). Some of our 30 year old and younger pilots will net well over 3M from the latter over a normal career..

I was hoping there were major improvments to rigs, but like I said, it appears to be status quo.. Between us and Delta in 2015 lets hope we come come out of this productivity nightmare.

not to mention, Alaska is a 6.5B company now, and not some small time airline like HAL

 

Having had mine taken in BK once already, I can't see paying to get another one.

 

The new (and better) industry standard is 15-16% contribution off gross pay. A fund is too risky.

 

DAL is now at a 5:15 average daily guarantee. Drastic improvement over just 2 years ago when the bad 3 day trips paid 10.5, they will now all pay 15:45. Also there is no longer a disparity between a Reg & Res credit wise flying the same rotation. Rsv pays Alv -2 for a min of 72 in the winter months & 82 in the summer. OT trips on your days off goes on top of guarantee and your days off paid back. If there's not enough time left in the bid period the days are added to your vacation bank. 12 hour long call, you can bid all your off days in one block if you want or split them up however you wish within parameters. Rsv can be a VERY good deal. In May I flew 42 Hrs block & credited 105. Earliest report on day 1 of long call is Noon base time & no shortcall before 10am with a 2 hr report (negotiable depending on base/conditions). Acknowledgement of duty assignments is no longer required, your just expected to show up. If you cannot (sick) then required to let them know 3 hours in advance minimum.