Quote:
Originally Posted by NotTellin
I went from having 19 days off a month to 13-14. Went from commutable trips on both ends to early shows and late arrivals causing my nights in SFO on my own dime to go from 1-2 a month to 5-6. Went from getting 25-35k profit sharing to 7-9k performance based bonus. My W2 was basically the same but I lost 4-6 days a month at home. Now you will hear from a bunch of guys that Alaska is the only major carrier they’ve worked for, tell you I’m full of kaka. I’m not.
This is all true, and has several root causes...
VX had a different business model, so different schedules.
VX hired a LOT of commuters (many refugees from BK airlines during an era when there weren't a lot of other employment options). They evolved as a commuter airline from the get-go.
VX was a startup, with a somewhat mixed bag of work rules, a few of which were very nice though.
In fairness, VX was unlikely to last forever... M&A was obviously in the cards, and covid might very well have shut it down since the owners would have seen all M&A opportunities gone for an indefinite period.
AS does a lot of west coast regional flying.
AS was never a particularly commuter-friendly airline. They hired mostly locals who lived in base.
AS never had great scheduling rules, and they lost much of what they did have through a couple rounds of arbitration.
If you live in base it should be tolerable to decent QOL with the new contract. It will pay fine.
There are better options in most bases, at least if you're young. If you're older I'd take AS if you can get it, rather than waiting an unknown timeframe for DL, UA, etc. If you're young it probably doesn't hurt you to take a job at AS and keep trying for legacies/cargo that have bases where you live.