Alaska Airlines does not give preferential hiring to furloughed pilots, in fact, it's quite the opposite. They want to be your first choice and they want to see that you made every effort to get hired by them. They attend Air, Inc. and they look very favorably on pilots who are willing to shell out the cash just to get a face-to-face meeting with one of the Chief Pilots. My husband went to the LAX Air, Inc. seminar in 2002 and met the LAX Regional Chief pilot at Alaska Airlines. A few months later he was called for an interview and is now in training at Alaska. He found out recently that Barry Rainey (sp?), the LAX Regional Cheif Pilot for Alaska Airlines, sent in a recommendation for him after meeting with him at Air, Inc. He didn't have an on-the-spot interview, but if you look at the pilot job listings at Alaskaair.com you will notice that they look very kindly on any conference attendees. I don't know about other airlines but if Alaska Airlines is your goal, go to the Air, Inc. seminars whenever possible and meet with the Alaska recruiters.