4 year seat lock? Does that mean you are stuck in FO Q400 seat for 4 years or just FO seat for 4 years (with ability to FO on the jet)? Either way, not a bright prospect! Is this seat lock deal forecast to be permanent?
Also, this does not jibe with the APC info "Upgrade times now down to 2.5 to 3 years". What gives?
Thanks!

Pen Air seems like a decent place to fly

There's always that cargo outfit that works out of the north airpark flying 1900s. One of my F/Os in the past came from there and ended up at Atlas.

At Horizon you are seatlocked for 4 years on the Q400, you cannot switch over to the jet as an FO. Nothing will prevent you from upgrading on either the Q400 or E175, however you will need about 15 years of seniority before you could hold E175 captain. So that pretty much leaves just the Q400 for you to upgrade on. The E175 will be strictly reserved for super senior captains and new hires after March 2017.

The APC profile says upgrade in 2.5-3 years and that is correct...if you were hired 2.5-3 years ago. We had a massive wave of new hires in 2014-2015 and 8 months of seniority stagnation when Alaska halted all of their classes. So the 2.5 year upgrade is not possible if you were hired today and nothing changed. Looking at the seniority list theres 2 year FOs that still have 150+ FO's infront of them, and we only upgrade 4-8 every other month and none during summer. 90% of our captains are lifers and not going anywhere so movement is pretty much centered on FOs bailing or aircraft growth. We still don't know if the company will park Q's or not. I don't think they want to, but as of right now we cant get any new hires into the Q for the reasons above and our lack of incentives (namely none) that we offer new hires.

Tomorrow will be interesting because our LOA that would increase new hire pay to $41 (and give the company freedom to change it whenever they want) and reduce the seat lock to 2 years (still worthless if you're hired before the jets arrive) will be voted down. We predict the company will violate our contract and offer new hire bonuses anyway which will start a long drawn out court battle grievance process.

It's going to get ugly, I would recommend Compass or Skywest to anyone who *has* to live in a PNW base.

I live in Anchorage, and commute to Portland for penair. It's really not very bad at all.

That would be ACE. 1900 flying in Alaska should qualify you for just about anything.

Thanks for the insight, Snacky...

Seems, even if you are hired into the jet next year, you could be looking at perpetual reserve as an FO (if a steady influx of FOs coming off the Q seat lock transferred over). On the other hand, fast upgrades could happen on the Q with people moving over to the jet.

Ah man, there is so much to like about Horizon/Alaska (great product, top-notch flying, PNW, etc.). I hope this, somehow, gets sorted out for you all.

Would love to come up there if it does... Best of luck!

All true statements, but I think they still pay better than PenAir, not totally sure. A new FO who doesn't break garuntee is $3,000 / month.

Corvus is like every other company, theres plenty of issues, but theres also plenty of good reasons to work here. Dash 8 flying with home every night schedules, commutable from other places in AK, a few guys from PNW even, and decent pay compared to the others. Also, we have a solid standing with AS for hiring, several of our captains went this year and 2 more going next month for sure, possibly more.

I'm pretty sure there is a bonus at pen air now and upgrade is supposed to be pretty quick.