AS application question-employment history

Vacancy results are out. Most junior CA is 737 LAX hired 09/2014. The bid is effective for September this year so it'll be 5 yrs exactly for this guy to sit left seat. The rest of the results are all over the place. A couple VX CAs downgraded themselves to FO, and looks like one did it to live in base as PDX FO versus commute to rsv CA. 2 Boeing LA Captains bid LA Airbus CA to get the seniority advantage and be #1 and #2 in base (no Airbus pilot showed up in the first ~500 spots on the new list so pretty much anyone in the top 400 at AS could be #1 in an Airbus base). For me the surprising thing was of the 11 Boeing LAX CA awards, 10 went junior to me. From a relative seniority perspective looks like I'd be better off Boeing LA. I'm still gonna stay put on the Bus and see what happens here in the future in terms of fleet decision.

The vacancy created 26 newhire FO positions:

All A320
23 SFO
3 LAX
 
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Cherokee_Cruiser said:
Vacancy results are out. Most junior CA is 737 LAX hired 09/2014. The bid is effective for September this year so it'll be 5 yrs exactly for this guy to sit left seat. The rest of the results are all over the place. A couple VX CAs downgraded themselves to FO, and looks like one did it to live in base as PDX FO versus commute to rsv CA. 2 Boeing LA Captains bid LA Airbus CA to get the seniority advantage and be #1 and #2 in base (no Airbus pilot showed up in the first ~500 spots on the new list so pretty much anyone in the top 400 at AS could be #1 in an Airbus base). For me the surprising thing was of the 11 Boeing LAX CA awards, 10 went junior to me. From a relative seniority perspective looks like I'd be better off Boeing LA. I'm still gonna stay put on the Bus and see what happens here in the future in terms of fleet decision.

The vacancy created 26 newhire FO positions:

All A320
23 SFO
3 LAX
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"If you come to Alaska, you'll sit right seat for over a decade." Give or take.
 
word302 said:
"If you come to Alaska, you'll sit right seat for over a decade." Give or take.
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That is still true. That one guy upgrading has been here 5 years, but for new hires it'll be 10++. With low retirements and zero growth, a new hire will only be 21% from the bottom of the list in 10 years.
 
Skåning said:
That is still true. That one guy upgrading has been here 5 years, but for new hires it'll be 10++. With low retirements and zero growth, a new hire will only be 21% from the bottom of the list in 10 years.
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Do you really think the master plan is no growth for a decade?
 
Yeah this bid result is the first one for a combined pilot group now 3,017 pilots. The junior CA was #1,877 so around 62%. The math shows 1,140 numbers from the bottom for CA on this bid. There are only about 620 Age 65 retirements from 2019-2028. So unless there is some sort of massive growth, you're looking at a long time to hold CA here. I'd plan on at least 7-9 yrs for sure.

Another update to this original thread, they have hired the 144 newhires already. The vacancy results created 26 newhire FO positions and they have increased the number of hiring for FOs. They are now projecting needing 210 to 250 newhire FOs for the year. Subtracting the 144 already hired, that means 66 to 106 more newhires from now until the end of the year. It looks like they are opening the pilot hiring window from July 1 - July 8, newhire classes starting in July (to fill the 26 newhire FOs effective Sept 1st) and continue hiring through the rest of the Summer and Fall.
 
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word302 said:
Do you really think the master plan is no growth for a decade?
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YES. Management has already showed how overwhelmed they are with the Virgin America acquisition. They bit off more than they could chew and prob would have been better off growing organically. There are no new aircraft on order and at the very least the A319s will be going away. CEO said no new routes or planes till at least through 2020. They're a conservative company and only do things when their hand is forced by competition. Don't ever expect a big aircraft growth order, IF an order happens it would be for replacements and at a leisurely pace.

Cherokee_Cruiser said:
Yeah this bid result is the first one for a combined pilot group now 3,017 pilots. The junior CA was #1,877 so around 62%. The math shows 1,140 numbers from the bottom for CA on this bid. There are only about 620 Age 65 retirements from 2019-2028. So unless there is some sort of massive growth, you're looking at a long time to hold CA here. I'd plan on at least 7-9 yrs for sure.

Another update to this original thread, they have hired the 144 newhires already. The vacancy results created 26 newhire FO positions and they have increased the number of hiring for FOs. They are now projecting needing 210 to 250 newhire FOs for the year. Subtracting the 144 already hired, that means 66 to 106 more newhires from now until the end of the year. It looks like they are opening the pilot hiring window from July 1 - July 8, newhire classes starting in July (to fill the 26 newhire FOs effective Sept 1st) and continue hiring through the rest of the Summer and Fall.
Click to expand...

Also important to note that those 26 vacancies are for SFO A320
 
I’ve heard that they’re planning on another bid sometime in November. This recent one was more of a test bid to give them some idea of what people wanted. The next one will be bigger.
 
Skåning said:
YES. Management has already showed how overwhelmed they are with the Virgin America acquisition. They bit off more than they could chew and prob would have been better off growing organically. There are no new aircraft on order and at the very least the A319s will be going away. CEO said no new routes or planes till at least through 2020. They're a conservative company and only do things when their hand is forced by competition. Don't ever expect a big aircraft growth order, IF an order happens it would be for replacements and at a leisurely pace.
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While you're probably right, if JetBlue had acquired Virgin America, they would have put Alaska out of business, or forced them into a even less desirable merger. It wouldn't have happened overnight, but the game would be set at that point for Alaska as a standalone company.

At leas right now you guys are in control if your destiny going forward. That is, until Alaska, JetBlue and Hawaiian merge.
 
Another vacancy. 16 upgrades, 16 FOs. Effective Nov 1st

All 737

3 ANC FO
12 LAX CA, 13 LAX FO
2 PDX CA
2 SEA CA

Bid will result in 32 newhires.

Growth not reduction, so anyone bidding off the Airbus will create an Airbus opening that will be filled.
 
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Cherokee_Cruiser said:
Another vacancy. 16 upgrades, 16 FOs. Effective Nov 1st

All 737

3 ANC FO
12 LAX CA, 13 LAX FO
2 PDX CA
2 SEA CA

Bid will result in 32 newhires.

Growth not reduction, so anyone bidding off the Airbus will create an Airbus opening that will be filled.
Click to expand...

Quite a few LAX CA openings. You finally going to pull the trigger?? [emoji3526]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
RMCBear08 said:
Quite a few LAX CA openings. You finally going to pull the trigger?? [emoji3526]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Nope :)

It’s lucrative to be on an overstaffed base/seat when not used on reserve to pickup on days off. Also I’d like to hit 500 and 1000 hr values in the left seat on the Bus for backup/insurance/worse case scenario.

The pay rate is the same. It’s true I would have more people below me on the Bowing and potentially hold open flying (build up) lines. But regular lineholders and open flying line holders are limited on pickups to monthly max limits (typically 90-93 hrs max) from open time. Pilot-to-pilot pickup and swaps have no limit. Whereas reserves can’t do pilot to pilot pickups, but can add unlimited amount of opentime trips on days off so as long as it is legal and fits on your schedule.

I’d also like to see the final fleet decision and potential draw down schedule of the Bus if they switch to all Boeing. So really I’m in a mode of wait and see what happens.

I’m glad to see movement though. My career since 2007 has been stagnant and slow. I think this literally is the first time I’ve seen back-to-back vacancy bids. At the regional I saw more displacements and downgrades then I did upgrades. And VX deferred growth end of 2012 so our vacancies there were pretty rare / spread apart.
 
Skåning said:
New hires will most likely get SFO A320
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Makes me super excited to hear this but sounds very competitive still. Will be waiting for the October window to build more time. Just feels weird to wait because I always assumed applying day 1 showed initiative. Probably a naive way to think but anything to make yourself feel better! :bounce:
 
tcco94 said:
Makes me super excited to hear this but sounds very competitive still. Will be waiting for the October window to build more time. Just feels weird to wait because I always assumed applying day 1 showed initiative. Probably a naive way to think but anything to make yourself feel better! :bounce:
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Keep in mind by the time October rolls around there may be more shuffle from a recent bid that just closed. So possibly new hires at that time could be sent to the Guppy or different bases.
 
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