Alaska Air or UPS?

DE727UPS

DE727UPS

Well-Known Member
Someone has an offer from both. Wants to be based in ANC. Related to a UPS pilot and lots of opinions at the brown forum. I know there's quite a few AS folks on here. Thoughts?
 
Long wait on ANC at Eskimo…
It’s pretty good, for an airline job. Lots of unknowns with the merger to play out and making a big bet on international travel at a time when international travel seems to be on shaky ground.
 
Fingers crossed the powers that be will assign them ANC if they come here. We both know how that goes though. Prior Boeing experience gets you the MD or Airbus.
 
I don’t work at either so I’m probably stating the obvious here:

I’d imagine the lifestyle and trip length is pretty different between the two? (Specifically at ANC, not other bases)
 
On the Eskimo side:

I don't see ANC growing in the future. I have flown with several FOs who are commuting from ANC to SEA or even further away. Some were able to hold ANC at first and then were forced out to SEA or further away. So the trend is not your friend at the moment. It would take years to hold ANC as an FO. Even if there was a meager amount of growth which again I do not see anytime soon. If hired today: one would have to wait to move up the list 250 spots to be the most junior pilot in ANC

The most junior captain awarded ANC on the last bid was a November 2016 hire. This timeline will likely increase with the SLI and associated churn.

My biggest hesitation for someone living in ANC and anything remotely important going on family wise would be the commute. It seems to be extremely difficult during the summer months to commute to and from ANC. That would go on for years before it was resolved and one could live in base. After that the QOL would be quite good. Until they wanted to upgrade of course...

I have zero SA on how any of this compares to life at UPS but I could ping a few friends there if it mattered enough for you.
 
Re: Comments on That Other Forum. Based on this person's experience, they will almost certainly get the 74 if they want it. And I don't see the ANC domicile going senior (or away) short of a new iron curtain.
 
ERfly said:
Only in an industry as messed up as this one would there be a discussion of ALASKA Airlines shrinking and downsizing a crew base in the state of ALASKA.
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That's a weird take.

No one said the base is shrinking. There are just a lot of FOs who are currently in other bases and want ANC. In addition to that growth in ANC is unlikely.

It would take a long time to get into the ANC base as an FO. Mostly because there would be so many senior to a new hire who already want the ANC base and have not been able to hold it. Or who have been displaced to another base.
 
podrick said:
I don’t work at either so I’m probably stating the obvious here:

I’d imagine the lifestyle and trip length is pretty different between the two? (Specifically at ANC, not other bases)
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It can be, surprisingly there’s a number of lines with shorter trip lengths on them in ANC. The longer stuff tends to go senior since the commuters want to reduce their commutes.

Both are good gigs and I’d usually say think long and hard about our schedules at Brown if this person wanted to just do domestic, but living in base in ANC is great from what I hear. It’s like an entirely different airline up there. And the whale is a good airplane to hang your hat on.
 
It did shrink a little bit, with the March displacement bid that reduced ANC FOs. On this new bid there should be some movement to ANC FO as pilots take the 3 ANC CA vacancies, plus backfilling any ANC FO who takes an upgrade in SEA.



It’s going to be a while before any newhire gets ANC. There’s quite a list of guys in SFO, LAX, and SEA who want ANC and can’t get it. IF the prediction of 100 newhires holds for Jan-March then maybe it might be quicker. But I would tell them it might take 1-2 yrs of commuting before they can hold it.
 
phill1174 said:
but living in base in ANC is great from what I hear. It’s like an entirely different airline up there. And the whale is a good airplane to hang your hat on.
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The schedules up there on the whale go back and forth from "great" to "meh". I think we're back in a "meh" period ATM, but that mostly applies to commuters. The guys who live up there (and *want* to live up there) mostly seem to love it. Must love Asia and at least be able to tolerate China. Yes, even if we go back to Clark, as the rumor-mill loves to suggest.

You can't beat the relative seniority. I think ANC 74Y goes junior to everything but domestic Airbus and *maybe* domestic 75/76, at least on the F/O side. There are also more and better opportunities for conflict bidding than anywhere else, AFAICT.
 
He needs to ask himself the really hard questions. Like self, do you want to do eight to nine day trips at UPS? Or do you want want to join the dysfunctional Bravo TV gnash cluster of the Real Alaska Airline Pilots of Alaska Airlines (RAAPoAA) backbiters on the Jetcareers forum?

It's a tough choice. Choose wisely.

P.S. Someone will always find a way to mention that they ride mountain bikes! :)
 
Maximilian_Jenius said:
Like self, do you want to do eight to nine day trips at UPS?
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There are a lot of shorter trips in the ANC bid-pack, and they tend to go junior due to commuters not wanting them (as I think someone may have mentioned above). And those are ripe for conflict-bidding.

Also, I used to ride mountain bikes a lot, back before "rear-suspension" and other communist plots.
 
Maximilian_Jenius said:
He needs to ask himself the really hard questions. Like self, do you want to do eight to nine day trips at UPS? Or do you want want to join the dysfunctional Bravo TV gnash cluster of the Real Alaska Airline Pilots of Alaska Airlines (RAAPoAA) backbiters on the Jetcareers forum?

It's a tough choice. Choose wisely.

P.S. Someone will always find a way to mention that they ride mountain bikes! :)
Click to expand...
I'm sure @DE727UPS will be sure to share, to his friend, the opinion of a Psych Nurse in Phoenix with the full weight it deserves. I normally stay out of these conversations because I have no valid opinion, but if everyone is jumping in maybe I should too? I think UPS will eventually end up with a fatter wallet, AS will eventually be a better quality of life. I'm basing my opinion completely on posts in this thread. I've never worked for or on an airliner.
 
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