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After hearing what went on between your beloved Uncle Jerry and our MEC, all I have to say is..
you non union Skywest POS.. I hope you get what you deserve in the end.

Roses are red
Mosquito's itch
XJET pilots act like a little
B____:p
 
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the stock purchase plan and the stock grants alone are far and away the best in the regional industry.

What discount do you get with your stock purchase plan? The standard discount is 15%. Personally, I feel too much invested in my employer already. I rather take the savings and put it into my 401k.

I like the idea of stock grants though. What is the vesting period? Does the vesting period separate for each grant?
 
Do you have the rule as a SKW pilot to get 100% DHD pay? Do you get to train on days that you originally had a trip on or do you have to train on days off? Do you get a vacation schedule that gives you any trip dropped that your vacation touches? Those are huge things that net our pilot group lots of extra pay.

Skywest pilots have told me in the past that vacations wouldn't necessarily get approved. So I would throw in the rule about the company making enough slots available for all vacation weeks outstanding for pilots to bid on.
 
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Skywest pilots have told me in the past that vacations wouldn't necessarily get approved. So I would throw in the rule about the company making enough slots available for all vacation weeks outstanding for pilots to bid on.

The two different ways to bid for "master vacation". One way, at the beginning of the year, makes it pretty easy to get approved if you have the seniority...as it's based completely on slots available and not on "company need" or "projected company need". Admittedly, they are stingy with the slots at times, but for the most part this process seems fair. I've had some seniority and gotten what I wanted without any problem

The second way to get on the "master vacation" schedule is to bid for it during the year. This is definitely more of a crapshoot. If we are over-staffed like we are now...there's not problem...but if we get short...look out. They've even cancelled a few F/A and FO vacations in my short time here. It can get pretty hard to get time off.
 
The two different ways to bid for "master vacation". One way, at the beginning of the year, makes it pretty easy to get approved if you have the seniority...as it's based completely on slots available and not on "company need" or "projected company need". Admittedly, they are stingy with the slots at times, but for the most part this process seems fair. I've had some seniority and gotten what I wanted without any problem

The second way to get on the "master vacation" schedule is to bid for it during the year. This is definitely more of a crapshoot. If we are over-staffed like we are now...there's not problem...but if we get short...look out. They've even cancelled a few F/A and FO vacations in my short time here. It can get pretty hard to get time off.

That sounds more reasonable than what I had been told. At XJT, the company is required to make enough weeks available to pilots so that if every pilot bid all their weeks, they could ALL be awarded (if you forget to bid, you are assigned a an open week). There is no yoy accrual of vacation.
 
So let me get this straight.

SkyWest, Inc. buys ExpressJet, immediately furloughs 700 pilots, then transfers a handful of airplanes to SkyWest Airlines. SkyWest pilots get to continue their rightful 2 year upgrades while ExpressJet at best turns into the next Eagle and at worst turns into the next ACA.

And this is somehow a good thing? Because they were "saved"?


Thats the picture SKW painted to our MEC.
 
So after one year you get a grant that is vested after year four and then on year two you get a grant that is vested on year five and so on?


Not quite, they used to give stock options that would vest within 2 to 3 years. You would buy the shares at the reduced price and then they were yours to do with whatever you wanted. Last year I netted about $5500, the year before that was really good which was almost $11,000. This year I had one mature and got a little under $3K.

Now due to some IRS rule they can only give out stock grants that vest in around three years, no more buying and selling of options. What sucks is that the grant is considered income when it vests and you have to pay income tax on it wether you sell it or not. I have one that comes up next year that is worth around $4k.

To me, I look at as pretty much free money.

Slam away
 
Not quite, they used to give stock options that would vest within 2 to 3 years. You would buy the shares at the reduced price and then they were yours to do with whatever you wanted. Last year I netted about $5500, the year before that was really good which was almost $11,000. This year I had one mature and got a little under $3K.

Now due to some IRS rule they can only give out stock grants that vest in around three years, no more buying and selling of options. What sucks is that the grant is considered income when it vests and you have to pay income tax on it wether you sell it or not. I have one that comes up next year that is worth around $4k.

To me, I look at as pretty much free money.

Slam away

My intent was not to slam. It seems like a decent program and I was just trying to educate myself on it.

But you said, "...they used to give stock options that would vest within 2 to 3 years. You would buy the shares at the reduced price..." So are they grants or are you buying them under your stock purchase program? I'm asking about your stock grants program.
 
Now with the stock grants they just give you the stock shares that vest on some given date, usually 3 years down the road. I got one a while back for 417 shares that vest sometime in 2009, I think 2009. I know it isnt this year but it might be early 2010.

To me, it seems like a pretty good deal.
 
After you have been with the company for three years you automatically qualify for the stock grants. The grants are totally free of charge. $0. The grants are based loosely on your time of service and mostly on your annual income. This year I was given 28 shares of free stock. They take two years to vest with a penalty I think, and three years to vest with no penalty.

The regular stock purchase is predicated on the lower of the two amounts of the stock on opening day of the 1/2 year cycle, or the closing day. On top of that, its either 15 or 20% discount on top of the lower amount. If it opens at $20 of January 1st and closes at $18 on June 30th, you buy it at a discount from the $18. Make sense?
 
The regular stock purchase is predicated on the lower of the two amounts of the stock on opening day of the 1/2 year cycle, or the closing day. On top of that, its either 15 or 20% discount on top of the lower amount. If it opens at $20 of January 1st and closes at $18 on June 30th, you buy it at a discount from the $18. Make sense?

Yeah, its like the standard employee stock purchase program. Thanks.
 
That sounds more reasonable than what I had been told. At XJT, the company is required to make enough weeks available to pilots so that if every pilot bid all their weeks, they could ALL be awarded (if you forget to bid, you are assigned a an open week). There is no yoy accrual of vacation.

The best part of Skywest vacation is that it transfers over year to year. So me as an FO I take no vacation. It would be a waste for me. I am saving all my vacation until I upgrade. Then all the vacation can be cashed out at Captain pay rather than FO pay.
 
The best part of Skywest vacation is that it transfers over year to year. So me as an FO I take no vacation. It would be a waste for me. I am saving all my vacation until I upgrade. Then all the vacation can be cashed out at Captain pay rather than FO pay.

That is assuming you are approved though, right?
 
No I could end up not taking a single day off for vacation and just cash the vacation pay out for extra money. You do not have to actually take a day off to get vacation pay.

You can have it paid out every year or only when you leave?
 
Ah, the joys of kicking back, sippin on an ice cold glass of turkwise Kool-Aid and reading 10 pages of useless, uninformative, monotonous but funny FI bull********************. Tis another day is coming to an end on FI with dreams of even a better day tomorrow. Wait, what was the topic of this thread again, oh yeah!!!
Thanks SkyWest, for at least allowing me to have a job with an airline, a competitive airline at that, the best in the regional business.
 
So after one year you get a grant that is vested after year four and then on year two you get a grant that is vested on year five and so on?

Yeah, but you don't get grants until(I think) three years in. My first vests next year, then every year after that.
 
You can have it paid out every year or only when you leave?

You can have it paid out whenever you want in the form of adding credit to your month in Sched plus. You can add credit on a day you didnt even work just to have some vacation paid out to you if you wanted to.
 
You can have it paid out whenever you want in the form of adding credit to your month in Sched plus. You can add credit on a day you didnt even work just to have some vacation paid out to you if you wanted to.

I totally forgot about that.

I think you need three consecutive days off to do that and they plunk 4:18 out of your bank into the middle? I did that once, way back when...I had time to spare.
 
Well after talking with a local Alpa rep all I can say is NO. The deal Skywest is offering us is unacceptable and, in its current form won't stand a chance with our pilot group. No one is immune from the most junior (me) to the most senior.

Hopefully, the MEC can negotiate a better deal. I am willing to take a furlough (everyone should always be prepared) if the deal is acceptable.

As it stands right now the only people who will benefit from the deal is Skywest, CAL and, what ever pilot group (ASA or Skywest) that gets the CAL flying.

Before you flame away the deal is for 205 aircraft for CoEx flying, contract to be evaluated in 1 year. If we (Xjet) are still to expensive Skywest can transfer 5 aircraft/month to one of their affiliates. Also, they will keep 29 of the 69 aircraft and, staff them with Skywest pilots.

This is a big sh*t sandwich that JA is trying to shove down our throat.
 
Well after talking with a local Alpa rep all I can say is NO. The deal Skywest is offering us is unacceptable and, in its current form won't stand a chance with our pilot group. No one is immune from the most junior (me) to the most senior.

Hopefully, the MEC can negotiate a better deal. I am willing to take a furlough (everyone should always be prepared) if the deal is acceptable.

As it stands right now the only people who will benefit from the deal is Skywest, CAL and, what ever pilot group (ASA or Skywest) that gets the CAL flying.

Before you flame away the deal is for 205 aircraft for CoEx flying, contract to be evaluated in 1 year. If we (Xjet) are still to expensive Skywest can transfer 5 aircraft/month to one of their affiliates. Also, they will keep 29 of the 69 aircraft and, staff them with Skywest pilots.

This is a big sh*t sandwich that JA is trying to shove down our throat.

Try to think of it as a smooth, creamy sh!t sandwich with fresh homemade bread....cause the one you're getting from Jimmy R. will have chunks of corn in it.

Good luck XJT.

W
 
Well after talking with a local Alpa rep all I can say is NO. The deal Skywest is offering us is unacceptable and, in its current form won't stand a chance with our pilot group. No one is immune from the most junior (me) to the most senior.

Hopefully, the MEC can negotiate a better deal. I am willing to take a furlough (everyone should always be prepared) if the deal is acceptable.

As it stands right now the only people who will benefit from the deal is Skywest, CAL and, what ever pilot group (ASA or Skywest) that gets the CAL flying.

Before you flame away the deal is for 205 aircraft for CoEx flying, contract to be evaluated in 1 year. If we (Xjet) are still to expensive Skywest can transfer 5 aircraft/month to one of their affiliates. Also, they will keep 29 of the 69 aircraft and, staff them with Skywest pilots.

This is a big sh*t sandwich that JA is trying to shove down our throat.
The Brown and Nutty Sandwich you're being asked to sample is a result of the Economy, specifically oil prices and nothing else. There’s nothing greedy or underhanded in it. JA sees opportunity for you guys and his shareholders, so he's pursuing it.

I have several good friends over at XJT; they think the deal isn't the best, but not as bad as the alternative. I hope you all do what is best for both your wallets and conscience.

Either way, I'm having a beer. You're welcome to one yourself if you like.
 
No I could end up not taking a single day off for vacation and just cash the vacation pay out for extra money. You do not have to actually take a day off to get vacation pay.
We have it the same way at RAH. I just let the days build up. If I need them I need them and if I don't I'll just wait till upgrade. All you do here is send an email or call and say "Hey I want to cash in XX amount of vacation pay". It'll be on the next check.
 
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