Let's play a game.
You are based at LGA, company says a part came in for a sick plane but they sent it to JFK, can you take your car and go get the part.
Are you going to make company pay for gas?
The company says, "heck no" they're not paying for gas for 26 mile trip - a gallon of gas - $2.50 max out of your pocket. But if you don't pick up that part, a plane is grounded and 50 passengers are stuck at LGA looking for options on how to get to their destination.
Is the problem the pilot's or is the problem the company's?
So when company has considered YOUR cell phone as an essential device to THEIR operation - does that make it right?
Pilot wages are probably 60% of what they used to be - I haven't heard of too many people getting pay increases in the last few years. Company has cut your benefits. They have renegotiated work rules so you are working longer and harder and at their disposal more hours out of the week. But you want to be generous and help THEIR customers by using YOUR cell phone.
You have no one to blame but yourselves for the paycheck you receive for your services.
No company in the world will fix anything or pay more for something unless they see a need. But 50 letters to the president from irate customers stuck on the ground will cause a great deal of upheaval for change. A plane did not move for lack of communication - now its Pinnacle's problem to fix as long as you don't fix it for them. The choices are fix the ACARS that may not have been working, hire more dispatchers because the ones on duty were too busy to answer ACARS, pay the bills to ARINC or Delta Radio to make the phone patch or maybe even allow the pilots to put in expense reimbursements for cell phone usage. But if you fix the problem for free, the company will gladly accept your charity.
Every single pilot on this board needs to start thinking like a contractor. You are limited to 1000 flying hours a year by the FAA. You get paid XX dollars per flight hour (Let's just say a young regional CA and put $60/hr). That's a dollar a flight minute. Every minute of your time is worth $1 to the company to act as a pilot. Yet, you show up to work, get dispatches, update your Jepps, pre-flight the airplane, feed the computers, taxi all over creation, sit on the tarmac and don't get paid a dime to do it. So that $1/min just became about 50 cents a minute. And then you commute to work and sit in hotels and have dinners at strange restaurants in strange places and wish you were home while you further diluted your earnings and now you are making 25 cents a minute.
Before I was furloughed, I was at the bottom of the seniority list. My last month had me on the road (Away from Base) for over 300 hours. I got paid for 71 hours of flight time at $34/hr. Do the math - I got paid $8.06/hour (13.4 cents a minute) to be a pilot working for a regional airline. And you want me to give the company cell phone minutes for free?
