MVP Gold and gave up on Alaska six years ago. Back then I got criticized for calling it the 'airline of no'. It still is.

Made the switch to Delta and have been very satisfied. Hope Alaska figures it out for the sake of its customers and hard-working employees.

WayexTDI wrote:

Interesting as Alaska seemed to have been the darling of a.net these past few years; where has the love gone?

I am genuinely curious as to why management has taken such a hard stance against the pilots? Does their business plan not support a more generous pilot contract or why did management elect to hold out and fight with the pilots so long over a new contract? There certainly is every indication that there will be a pilot shortage going forward for all the airlines so why create such a contract fight that ends up reportedly creating a high pilot turnover rate?

Anyone have some inside knowledge as to what led to this contract battle with the pilots and the related flight cancelations?

To clarify — I spent three pages bantering about ANC-HNL being canceled all summer. I think these concerns would fit right in there too.

usxguy wrote:

The huge number of schedule changes, forced overnights in Seattle again, last minute cancels with no compensation or sorry, and as mentioned, gate slammed in my face at D:10 after a 5 hr delayed flight ended it for me.

I got stuck in traffic in Portland a few weeks ago and rolled in to PDX at D-30. Hoof it to the gate and on my way I said to my wife on the phone "I bet they've closed. It's 20 min to departure." Sure enough, roll up at and the door is shut. "Oh. Well, we waited for you." The kicker was the plane sat at the gate for probably 30 minutes past scheduled departure time.

It wasn't a big deal since I got home three hours later and there's no sense in getting bent out of shape with the gate since it was my fault, though I did vent a little to my friend who works at the lounge. This has been going on for at least five years. Remember when you could roll up for a QX shuttle at D-10 and they'd get you on? Or they'd wait for you when connecting in Seattle?

I'd love to try Delta, but AS/AA have nonstops where I'm going so I'll sit and remember the old Alaska as I nibble away on my F&C plate.

I've been loyal to AS for many years...not quite getting to the upper echelons of MVP, however. But AS needs to take immediate ACTION to hammer out a good and competitive pilot pact and stop apologizing for all the delays and cancellations.

E175 N411SY delivered to OO on 5/10 to operate for AAG. This brings the E175 count operated for AAG to 68; 38 at OO and 30 at QX.

bubbrubb wrote:

can anyone enlighten me as to how the SEA-YLW route is doing? Will this route be long-term? Im from BC but living in Seattle now and Im always cheering for new routes that connect us more

I don’t know how it's doing, but this route isn't new. They have been flying it since the late 1990's. I would like to say it's safe because of its long history, but I don't think that can be said about any low frequency non manline route right now.

Aliqiout wrote:

bubbrubb wrote:

can anyone enlighten me as to how the SEA-YLW route is doing? Will this route be long-term? Im from BC but living in Seattle now and Im always cheering for new routes that connect us more

I don’t know how it's doing, but this route isn't new. They have been flying it since the late 1990's. I would like to say it's safe because of its long history, but I don't think that can be said about any low frequency non manline route right now.

I think SEA-YLW will be there for the long-haul. I'm a little surprised AS has been building up Canada a little bit more but maybe that'll come after the labor strife. I am a little disappointed that SEA-YYJ will be down to 1X daily, but YYJ is a pretty seasonal route. In the future, I'm hoping AS launches more Canada routes, while bolstering their current service.

Gold 100k here too. And I must say, it's definitely changed alot and not for the better. The ticket and gate agents have definitely changed.

The video was nice, but it's hard to guess he is trying to blame the pilots. He is however blaming the shortage.

Gold 100K here too, and a million miler to boot. Things started to shift culturally for the worse when they gobbled up VX. I’m not trying to start the umpteenth AS/VX argument, but those two companies just didn’t mesh well culturally. Current leadership seems to have completely lost control.

I keep flirting with DL and UA, but being PDX-based AS still has the best nonstop schedule for most of the places I go regularly…the one exception for me is Houston. We’ll see. DL going year-round again in JNU makes it very tempting as I go there regularly, even if it’s only one flight a day. Maybe if DL shows up in ADQ I’ll finally throw in the towel and move over.

452QX wrote:

USAirKid wrote:

Cardude2 wrote:

yes, I can confirm that.

N560AS (Spirit of the islands) still has the old titles but will be painted soon



N559AS (Salmon-Thirty-Salmon II) also still has the old colors and will be painted soon either into Salmon-Thirty-Salmon III or the regular livery and a MAX will be painted into Salmon-Thirty-Salmon III



and there is also 3 college q400s in the old titles (Oregon State University Beavers, Boise State Broncos, Washington State University Cougars) (Washington Huskies is in the new livery) but those are getting rertired

Are these five planes (2 - 737s and 3 Q400s) the last planes with the A being kicked?

560 is being repainted now, 559’s future is still undecided. The remaining college Qs with the old logo will likely keep it until retirement

There is a Q400 parts donor (429) in the full old livery in PDX that hasn’t flown in 3 years. Could end up sold, scrapped, or with a local college

Is there any plans on putting the College specialty planes on the 175s?

Does anyone know the status of Steamboat Springs (Hayden-HDN)? It's on their route map, but there does not appear to be any bookable flights.

NameOmitted wrote:

Does anyone know the status of Steamboat Springs (Hayden-HDN)? It's on their route map, but there does not appear to be any bookable flights.

SEA-HDN & SAN-HDN both resume 3x weekly (Sun/Wed/Sat) on December 17th.

AC4500 wrote:

NameOmitted wrote:

Does anyone know the status of Steamboat Springs (Hayden-HDN)? It's on their route map, but there does not appear to be any bookable flights.

SEA-HDN & SAN-HDN both resume 3x weekly (Sun/Wed/Sat) on December 17th.

Thank you.

SXDFC wrote:

452QX wrote:

USAirKid wrote:

Are these five planes (2 - 737s and 3 Q400s) the last planes with the A being kicked?

560 is being repainted now, 559’s future is still undecided. The remaining college Qs with the old logo will likely keep it until retirement

There is a Q400 parts donor (429) in the full old livery in PDX that hasn’t flown in 3 years. Could end up sold, scrapped, or with a local college

Is there any plans on putting the College specialty planes on the 175s?

That would be cool!

WayexTDI wrote:

Interesting as Alaska seemed to have been the darling of a.net these past few years; where has the love gone?

The same place all of their pilots are going - to other airlines.

Just negotiate a contract already, Ben. Anyone have an idea if the pilots got everything they asked for, what would that mean per passenger? Would my ticket price have to go up $5? $20?

F9Animal wrote:

Gold 100k here too. And I must say, it's definitely changed alot and not for the better. The ticket and gate agents have definitely changed.

The video was nice, but it's hard to guess he is trying to blame the pilots. He is however blaming the shortage.

The video was nice but Ben was bland, just like the video Constance sent back at the start of the year.

100K here living in Louisiana...and yah, most of what I'm reading here in the thread is the same thing I'm seeing across the board with their ground staff.
But there's also room for hope: Last weekend, my daughter and I flew DAL-SFO, door closed at D-5, jet bridge retracted...then jet bridge re-attached and door opened to let five late pax onto the plane.
Flight still arrived early into SFO.

Chugach wrote:

Gold 100K here too, and a million miler to boot. Things started to shift culturally for the worse when they gobbled up VX. I’m not trying to start the umpteenth AS/VX argument, but those two companies just didn’t mesh well culturally. Current leadership seems to have completely lost control.

I keep flirting with DL and UA, but being PDX-based AS still has the best nonstop schedule for most of the places I go regularly…the one exception for me is Houston. We’ll see. DL going year-round again in JNU makes it very tempting as I go there regularly, even if it’s only one flight a day. Maybe if DL shows up in ADQ I’ll finally throw in the towel and move over.

Not a 100K, just an MVP, but all my future travel is booked on UA. I decided a connection at DEN doesn’t really matter compared to a seemingly 50/50 chance of the QX nonstop actually going out remotely on time. I do 90% of my flying in the Mountain West so between DEN and SFO, if UA does cancel me, they’ve got the network to get me home within 48 hours of my original arrival time.

Seems like all the airlines are struggling right now? Not an excuse for Alaska, but seems there’s a post for each airline and their messes. I’ve flown Alaska and American a fair bit during the pandemic and really haven’t had any complaints outside of basically never getting MVP upgrades because of all the AA elites.

I’m making extra time for any important trips. Meeting friends in Vegas and flying in the day before. It sucks, but that’s the expectation for this summer.

It’s false to state or imply this is intended to make the pilots look bad. There were and are a number of reasons for the operational struggles of late, but the pilots are NOT to blame. At all. And the operation is being aggressively corrected.

EA CO AS wrote:

It’s false to state or imply this is intended to make the pilots look bad. There were and are a number of reasons for the operational struggles of late, but the pilots are NOT to blame. At all. And the operation is being aggressively corrected.

Except MANY pilots are 'flying by the book' which is definitely slowing things down quite a bit. And refusing to pick up trips. Pilots being pissed off is NOT helping the situation, and probably accounts for a good chunk of what's happening. Not sure I blame them though - that falls squarely on management.

It’s not just the ground staff at Alaska, it’s all the airlines these days. The newer people just don’t care, it’s just a job for them. The days of having a career with the airlines are long gone. I’m glad I’m at the tail end of my “career” because coming to work gets harder and harder everyday. It’s like two different companies comparing dayshift (senior) and swing shift(junior). The sick calls are 5x on swing shift compared to day shift.

Well, another Sunday...another call to AS because of their massive schedule changes to DAL completely screwing over a bunch of future travel plans I have with them; this time it's six itineraries I have in September-November. Looks like DAL-LAX is gone...and their ops out of DAL are just a few evening flights.

This 100K will not be re-upping this year at the rate they keep dicking with their flight schedules...it's becoming a Sunday morning tradition: wake up, check my AS itineraries for changes, call AS to make the changes to something resembling a sane itinerary from the dumb one they tried to schedule for me, then thank the reservations agent for their time and tell them I'll call them again next Sunday.

AS just needs to fold up shop at DAL and consolidate their ops to DFW...it's apparent they don't give a damn about DAL anymore.

AWACSooner wrote:

Well, another Sunday...another call to AS because of their massive schedule changes to DAL completely screwing over a bunch of future travel plans I have with them; this time it's six itineraries I have in September-November. Looks like DAL-LAX is gone...and their ops out of DAL are just a few evening flights.

This 100K will not be re-upping this year at the rate they keep dicking with their flight schedules...it's becoming a Sunday morning tradition: wake up, check my AS itineraries for changes, call AS to make the changes to something resembling a sane itinerary from the dumb one they tried to schedule for me, then thank the reservations agent for their time and tell them I'll call them again next Sunday.

AS just needs to fold up shop at DAL and consolidate their ops to DFW...it's apparent they don't give a damn about DAL anymore.

I doo’t fly AS to DAL but did to DFW and will not any longer. Single flights get cc’d and then the nightmare begins. Too many calls to reservations on the MVP line and having to wait and wait…too many cancellations. This 100K has moved status to DL and am a Diamond Platinum and not looking back.

wedgetail737 wrote:

In the future, I'm hoping AS launches more Canada routes, while bolstering their current service.

I could be wrong, but I don't know where else they could expand in Canada unless they wanted to push eastwards to Ontario and open YYZ.

They tried that little YVR focus city (complete with a club room) in the early to mid 2000s with service to SAN/LAS/PSP/ANC/PHX alongside the long-standing (now discontinued) routes of LAX/SFO plus the ill-fated SNA-YVR service that was discontinued after a day of service due to the lack of a FIS at SNA. I recall reading that they at one point had an impressive growth strategy planned for YVR at the time that never came to fruition.

I believe AS also did YYC-LAX (they might have done YYC-LAS too, but I could be wrong), and they did SEA-YXS for a couple of seasons.

I recall AS left YVR-LAX once DL and AA jumped on the route a couple of years back and suppressed yields. While DL is now off the route, it's interesting to see that both UA and AA are now flying this route with mainline equipment. Given that yields still appear to be low (and the fact that the AA flight is bookable with AS), I see little reason for them to return to YVR-LAX.

I suppose you could maybe make a business case for SEA-YWG.

I would probably fly DL more if they weren't partnered with AMEX. But AS flies to more of the destinations that I need to fly out of SEA nonstop than DL. So I guess I'm sticking with AS.

ramprat74 wrote:

It’s not just the ground staff at Alaska, it’s all the airlines these days. The newer people just don’t care, it’s just a job for them. The days of having a career with the airlines are long gone. I’m glad I’m at the tail end of my “career” because coming to work gets harder and harder everyday. It’s like two different companies comparing dayshift (senior) and swing shift(junior). The sick calls are 5x on swing shift compared to day shift.

And that's no longer limited to the airline industry. There are no long-term incentives to make a career at any company these days, especially when you can move from company to company getting double-digit raises as you move around.

EA CO AS wrote:

It’s false to state or imply this is intended to make the pilots look bad. There were and are a number of reasons for the operational struggles of late, but the pilots are NOT to blame. At all. And the operation is being aggressively corrected.

EA CO AS: Can you offer any insights into why management has fought this long battle with the pilots over a new contract? I am not aware of another airline that has taken this long to settle a new contract with its pilots. Are the pilots asking for too much? United appears to have a proposed pilot contract in hand and Sun Country gave their pilots a pretty nice contract from what I have heard and read---what is the hold up? Can AS not afford what the pilots want?

The contract fight with the pilots seems strange given the on-going and projected future shortage of pilots, especially given AS's history of great customer experience and performance. If they lose too many pilots, and media and union reports portray that they have already lost quite a few, how can they continue to grow organically as they add to the fleet?

And as AS cuts flights, how much market share are they losing to DL at SEA?

LAXBUR wrote:

Seems like all the airlines are struggling right now? Not an excuse for Alaska, but seems there’s a post for each airline and their messes. I’ve flown Alaska and American a fair bit during the pandemic and really haven’t had any complaints outside of basically never getting MVP upgrades because of all the AA elites.

I’m making extra time for any important trips. Meeting friends in Vegas and flying in the day before. It sucks, but that’s the expectation for this summer.

I see this excuse made quite often for failing operations such as those at Alaska and JetBlue. Certainly all the airlines are struggling to some extent, however not all the airlines are allowing it to impact their passengers to such a degree. Clearly if many of the above 100Ks are finding a better experience by switching to the competition then you can't make excuses for Alaska. Alaska need to do better. Same goes for JetBlue and any other airline making sad excuses for their inability to manage through a crisis.

And if AS and B6 don't get their act together, we the consumer risk losing them both which will be too bad. They both have offered a great competitive choice in their markets to consumers.

I cannot help but wonder if the market dynamics and shortage of pilots will squeeze AS and B6 out of existence. We will be left with the larger network carriers and the ULCs which I think will be unfortunate.

I'm booking a flight to BIL and it looks like all SEA flights are Q400 before June 16, and all E175 after. Is this just the summer schedule or are the Q400s being permanently pulled from Billings?

SUNCTRY738 wrote:

And if AS and B6 don't get their act together, we the consumer risk losing them both which will be too bad. They both have offered a great competitive choice in their markets to consumers.

I cannot help but wonder if the market dynamics and shortage of pilots will squeeze AS and B6 out of existence. We will be left with the larger network carriers and the ULCs which I think will be unfortunate.

The pilot shortages are not just related to AS and B6. The legacy carriers and ULCCs are all having their own operational issues as well. While both airlines are going to be significantly different (smaller?) than they were before this crisis, they will both come out of this on the other side.

N415XJ wrote:

I'm booking a flight to BIL and it looks like all SEA flights are Q400 before June 16, and all E175 after. Is this just the summer schedule or are the Q400s being permanently pulled from Billings?

With the Q400's being retired soon, it seems as if they're keeping them to shorter stage lengths.

AWACSooner wrote:

N415XJ wrote:

I'm booking a flight to BIL and it looks like all SEA flights are Q400 before June 16, and all E175 after. Is this just the summer schedule or are the Q400s being permanently pulled from Billings?

With the Q400's being retired soon, it seems as if they're keeping them to shorter stage lengths.

Not exactly. I'm flying a Q400 on the SEA-RNO segment (provided that it's not canceled) in a couple of weeks. They are still flying the Q400's on the SEA-RDD route. They also fly the Q400's on the SEA/PDX-SMF routes. Every once in a while, they schedule the Q400 on the SEA-STS route.

N415XJ wrote:

I'm booking a flight to BIL and it looks like all SEA flights are Q400 before June 16, and all E175 after. Is this just the summer schedule or are the Q400s being permanently pulled from Billings?

It wouldn't surprise me if the SEA-BIL flights go back the Q400's after the summer season...for now. Before the pandemic, AS was scheduled to start mainline flights between SEA and BIL. But we all know what happened.

PDX-FAT is also regularly on the Q400.

AC4500 wrote:

PDX-FAT is also regularly on the Q400.

PDX-FAT is a Skywest route

452QX wrote:

AC4500 wrote:

PDX-FAT is also regularly on the Q400.

PDX-FAT is a Skywest route

Yes, it's currently SkyWest but it has been on the Q400 in the past.

Have all aircraft received the mods for the new First Class?

If not, what percentage of the fleet has been completed?

Have any design changes occurred since the new product was rolled out a few years ago?

AS took their saws, knives, axes, scalpels, erasers, scissors and delete keys to the Oct 6 schedules last night so anyone interested in the outcome might want to check things out.

I will comment that I'm actually okay with what the remaining SAN skeds look like; we only lost one destination from the previous (mainly placeholders) version of the schedule - BZN. That puts SAN at 25 nonstop destinations on this schedule. Other markets saw some frequency reductions but some of them were due to, for example, upgrades from 2x EMJ flights to now a single mainline flight (such as with BOI.) As of right now, SAN sees a touch under 60 daily flights in October.

Hawaii remains at daily service to all 4 islands and JFK seems to remain very healthy, holding at double-daily MAX service! Our high-frequency intra-CA routes -- the Bay Area & SMF -- seem to be holding together pretty well with all markets hanging on to a minimum 6-7 flights per day! And SAN-STS is still showing 3 daily flights for October!

This is certainly not the last "adjustment" that will happen to this schedule but we are now within 5 months and a lot of the major damage is done. At this point, the seasonal (normal traffic) cuts have been made so we now have to wait and see what additional staffing problems, as well as perhaps ongoing fuel and covid issues, arise as we work our way thru summer... Good luck to everyones' airports.

bb

trueblew wrote:

LAXBUR wrote:

Seems like all the airlines are struggling right now? Not an excuse for Alaska, but seems there’s a post for each airline and their messes. I’ve flown Alaska and American a fair bit during the pandemic and really haven’t had any complaints outside of basically never getting MVP upgrades because of all the AA elites.

I’m making extra time for any important trips. Meeting friends in Vegas and flying in the day before. It sucks, but that’s the expectation for this summer.

I see this excuse made quite often for failing operations such as those at Alaska and JetBlue. Certainly all the airlines are struggling to some extent, however not all the airlines are allowing it to impact their passengers to such a degree. Clearly if many of the above 100Ks are finding a better experience by switching to the competition then you can't make excuses for Alaska. Alaska need to do better. Same goes for JetBlue and any other airline making sad excuses for their inability to manage through a crisis.

Or maybe they just say their experience is better to make themselves feel better? Or maybe they haven’t flown enough with their new selected carrier to get in a hot mess situation?

I know numerous people that have been stranded overnight or two days because of American and United. I’m not saying anyone is making anything up. But everything is anecdotal. Is there data out showing Alaska and their regionals are not completing flights or have a high delay rate? This isn’t a “gotcha”, I’m genuinely curious as I haven’t experienced these issues personally.

SUNCTRY738 wrote:

I cannot help but wonder if the market dynamics and shortage of pilots will squeeze AS and B6 out of existence. We will be left with the larger network carriers and the ULCs which I think will be unfortunate.

That’s a bit dramatic.

Boise seems to be seeing very few reductions when it comes to seat count.

AC4500 wrote:

452QX wrote:

AC4500 wrote:

PDX-FAT is also regularly on the Q400.

PDX-FAT is a Skywest route

Yes, it's currently SkyWest but it has been on the Q400 in the past.

It has operated on the Q400 (as has SEA), but only for short periods. FAT-PDX has been on either a CR7 or E75 for the overwhelming majority of its history (20ish years).

LAXBUR wrote:

SUNCTRY738 wrote:

I cannot help but wonder if the market dynamics and shortage of pilots will squeeze AS and B6 out of existence. We will be left with the larger network carriers and the ULCs which I think will be unfortunate.

That’s a bit dramatic.

Dramatic that it'll crush AS or B6? For sure. Dramatic in the sense that it'll force a regional or two, or even a smaller pax carrier or one of the smaller cargo carriers out of business or to consolidate? Not at all; it's highly likely if trajectory continues as is expected. B6's piss poor management is much more likely to cause any possible downfall long before a shortage of pilots will. AS will keep it together IMO.

wedgetail737 wrote:

N415XJ wrote:

I'm booking a flight to BIL and it looks like all SEA flights are Q400 before June 16, and all E175 after. Is this just the summer schedule or are the Q400s being permanently pulled from Billings?

It wouldn't surprise me if the SEA-BIL flights go back the Q400's after the summer season...for now. Before the pandemic, AS was scheduled to start mainline flights between SEA and BIL. But we all know what happened.

It might be as simple as scheduling whatever they think they'll have pilots to fly: Q400, E75, or 737.

SUNCTRY738 wrote:

EA CO AS wrote:

It’s false to state or imply this is intended to make the pilots look bad. There were and are a number of reasons for the operational struggles of late, but the pilots are NOT to blame. At all. And the operation is being aggressively corrected.

EA CO AS: Can you offer any insights into why management has fought this long battle with the pilots over a new contract? I am not aware of another airline that has taken this long to settle a new contract with its pilots.

You have to remember that contracts take time to negotiate, and both sides agreed to temporarily suspend those negotiations while COVID was getting started and have only recently resumed in earnest.

A deal will get done, but it’ll take time.

SUNCTRY738 wrote:

EA CO AS wrote:

It’s false to state or imply this is intended to make the pilots look bad. There were and are a number of reasons for the operational struggles of late, but the pilots are NOT to blame. At all. And the operation is being aggressively corrected.

EA CO AS: Can you offer any insights into why management has fought this long battle with the pilots over a new contract? I am not aware of another airline that has taken this long to settle a new contract with its pilots.

From the UA pilot contract thread:

MIflyer12 wrote:

The last Annual Report shows the Pilots' amendable date as January 2019, for those who don't follow UA labor negotiations closely.

As I recall the AS pilot’s amendable date was March 2020.