Alaska opens new SAN pilot base

Roger Roger said:
SFO or SAN will end up the junior base for FOs I bet. LAX is weird because the most junior pilots in the company are there, but once you get past a few at the bottom it’s significantly senior to SFO. SAN is a wild card on the FO side. I literally have no idea what is going to happen. There was a rumor prior to the bid closing from my new hire class that there aren’t near enough people bidding SAN and so there are going to be a lot of displacements, but I have no idea if that’s true and if anyone who could actually see that data would have been talking.
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I’ve heard the same rumor as far as FO’s bidding. Just would love to know the source of that rumor, seems the process is pretty sealed…
 
I kind of assumed that San Diego would not be a voluntary move for most folks, other than those who already live/commute from there to some other base. Same reason a lot of people don't want to be in SFO or LA. Bizarre cost of living, taxation, etc, and on top of that, would add a commute. I lived in SD and we liked it there a lot, but it was near the bottom of my bid. I'll probably be wrong, but if I had to guess, it would be that SD becomes the junior base for a while.....certainly with a handful of much more senior types enjoying the opportunity to no longer commute.
 
Roger Roger said:
SFO or SAN will end up the junior base for FOs I bet. LAX is weird because the most junior pilots in the company are there, but once you get past a few at the bottom it’s significantly senior to SFO. SAN is a wild card on the FO side. I literally have no idea what is going to happen. There was a rumor prior to the bid closing from my new hire class that there aren’t near enough people bidding SAN and so there are going to be a lot of displacements, but I have no idea if that’s true and if anyone who could actually see that data would have been talking.
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The membership committee can see it.
 
///AMG said:
I kind of assumed that San Diego would not be a voluntary move for most folks, other than those who already live/commute from there to some other base. Same reason a lot of people don't want to be in SFO or LA. Bizarre cost of living, taxation, etc, and on top of that, would add a commute. I lived in SD and we liked it there a lot, but it was near the bottom of my bid. I'll probably be wrong, but if I had to guess, it would be that SD becomes the junior base for a while.....certainly with a handful of much more senior types enjoying the opportunity to no longer commute.
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I think the assumption from the company and union was that a lot of PHX/LAS commuters would bid it. The problem with that assumption is that our commuter policy isn’t nearly good enough to voluntarily commute to a one-runway airport.
 
BEEF SUPREME said:
The membership committee can see it.
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They can? I didn’t know that

I used the union dashboard to look at how many pilot lived within 50 of San Diego who commute to all other bases. The number wasn’t nearly as high as people were talking live south of San Clemente. 91 to LAX, 3 to SFO and 3 to SFO. Not sure if that accuracy checks out.
 
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Roger Roger said:
I think the assumption from the company and union was that a lot of PHX/LAS commuters would bid it. The problem with that assumption is that our commuter policy isn’t nearly good enough to voluntarily commute to a one-runway airport.
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Aside from low weather or other what ifs associated with SAN, I’m willing to bet they are easier commutes given frequency and less competition for the jump.
 
That’s why the second bid is more scary. The first one should get most of the willing voluntary moves to SAN and have minimal reductions. When the second reduction/vacancy bid opens, that’s the one where a lot of people could be forced (reduced) and displaced. That’s why the previous statement of “it’s not the first bid that’s concerning.”
 
Roger Roger said:
I think the assumption from the company and union was that a lot of PHX/LAS commuters would bid it. The problem with that assumption is that our commuter policy isn’t nearly good enough to voluntarily commute to a one-runway airport.
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Seems like there are 97 pilots that live within 50 miles of SAN. 91 from LAX. Sadly there is no indication of the seniority of these pilots or which seat they hold. That would clear things up quite a bit.

I think that a lot of these pilots are senior LAX FOs, that like to operate the SNA flights. Since I’ve flown with quite a few of them I know many plan to upgrade into SAN. This is why I think there will be nowhere for the bottom displaced captains to go. Other than back to the right seat.


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///AMG said:
I kind of assumed that San Diego would not be a voluntary move for most folks, other than those who already live/commute from there to some other base. Same reason a lot of people don't want to be in SFO or LA. Bizarre cost of living, taxation, etc, and on top of that, would add a commute. I lived in SD and we liked it there a lot, but it was near the bottom of my bid. I'll probably be wrong, but if I had to guess, it would be that SD becomes the junior base for a while.....certainly with a handful of much more senior types enjoying the opportunity to no longer commute.
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Oh Cmon, you don’t want to drop 1.5-2 mil on a 3br with no yard, 600 a month on HOA on top of that fat mortgage, Mello Roos tax, over 400 a month on insurance (fire), 5 dollars on gas and about 15-20% more on groceries than pretty much anywhere else?
 
JDean3204 said:
Oh Cmon, you don’t want to drop 1.5-2 mil on a 3br with no yard, 600 a month on HOA on top of that fat mortgage, Mello Roos tax, over 400 a month on insurance (fire), 5 dollars on gas and about 15-20% more on groceries than pretty much anywhere else?
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Don’t forget 13% income tax for those at the captain income level…
 
BEEF SUPREME said:
Seems like there are 97 pilots that live within 50 miles of SAN. 91 from LAX. Sadly there is no indication of the seniority of these pilots or which seat they hold. That would clear things up quite a bit.

I think that a lot of these pilots are senior LAX FOs, that like to operate the SNA flights. Since I’ve flown with quite a few of them I know many plan to upgrade into SAN. This is why I think there will be nowhere for the bottom displaced captains to go. Other than back to the right seat.


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FYI I don’t believe that commute tool to be accurate, unless they’ve loaded more data into it.
 
BEEF SUPREME said:
I guess we'll just be good little mushrooms until January 7th. I wonder if I'll be getting a displacement or downgrade for my birthday.
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You’re 8 yrs in. When I was 8 yrs in as a junior Capt, it was March/April 2020 when Delta announced 70% of its fleet would be parked, and I wondered what it meant for the industry. United WARN letters went back to mid 2000 decade hires. I told my wife I may go from junior Captain to being furloughed on the street.


Now we gotta make the best of it, improvise, adapt to the environment, Darwin, s*** happens, I Ching, whatever man, we gotta roll with it.
 
Cherokee_Cruiser said:
You’re 8 yrs in. When I was 8 yrs in as a junior Capt, it was March/April 2020 when Delta announced 70% of its fleet would be parked, and I wondered what it meant for the industry. United WARN letters went back to mid 2000 decade hires. I told my wife I may go from junior Captain to being furloughed on the street.


Now we gotta make the best of it, improvise, adapt to the environment, Darwin, s*** happens, I Ching, whatever man, we gotta roll with it.
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What is happening at United and Delta now? Last I checked it was hiring over 2500 pilots for 2026 for UAL and a big order for DAL.

It's not the pandemic anymore...

Oh congrats to SWA for taking their 300th MAX last month. Deliveries seem to be possible for airlines that are actually ordering aircraft.
 
BEEF SUPREME said:
What is happening at United and Delta now? Last I checked it was hiring over 2500 pilots for 2026 for UAL and a big order for DAL.

It's not the pandemic anymore...

Oh congrats to SWA for taking their 300th MAX last month. Deliveries seem to be possible for airlines that are actually ordering aircraft.
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So go. What’s stopping you? Especially if you downgrade here. Then you’re FO anyway.
 
It’s your first merger. I get it. But newsflash, no airline after a merger hired tremendously. They integrate the operation, eliminate redundancies, and then it takes a little while before a hiring spree starts. Add to that the door blowout and MAX 10 delays, and we get our situation. This is hardly new. Your LinkedIn shows a handful of Corpie operations you bounced around before Skywest. Clearly, things weren’t hunky dory there either.


Suck it ups. This is nowhere close to the worse thing to happen when it comes to 121 stuff.
 
BEEF SUPREME said:
I guess we'll just be good little mushrooms until January 7th. I wonder if I'll be getting a displacement or downgrade for my birthday.
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Hey man, all I’m saying is for my tiny dot on the map it’s not correct. But then again depending how it parses addresses that might be an oddity of remoteness, sparse population, and zip code divisions.
 
JDean3204 said:
Oh Cmon, you don’t want to drop 1.5-2 mil on a 3br with no yard, 600 a month on HOA on top of that fat mortgage, Mello Roos tax, over 400 a month on insurance (fire), 5 dollars on gas and about 15-20% more on groceries than pretty much anywhere else?
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If it was just me and the Mrs, or the kids were younger or older, I would 100% pick up and move to CA and rent out the JNU house until I could hold JNU overnights. Commuting is expensive as •, and at our pay rates (especially on the Captain side) it’s easy to make up the difference in cost of living picking up premium or even someone else’s trash in pilot to pilot and STILL be home more. Plus you can’t beat the weather. I was off for 2 days and spent both of them shoveling 5’ of snow including as much of my roof as I could get done yesterday. Before that when I was off, it was -8° F and I had to fix 2 separate problems with our boiler.
 
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