I haven't posted in a long time, but when I heard about mr. b's rant I had to check it out. I must say that his post is everything that the other Avantair pilots say it is.
BTDI came in the door at Avantair last year and didn't impress anyone with his rants on the company forums. He made sure his reputation as a chronic complainer preceeded him. Thankfully, I never flew with him but I've met him and wasn't impressed. Not a personal attack - just my observation.
Anyway, I've been here about 4 years and I haven't seen the numerous problems that he's experienced in just one year here. Here's my experience having been here 4 times as long as the thread starter.
I've never had a problem with the sick policy. When I'm sick, I call in and use my sick time. I also have been allowed to return mid-tour. Yes, if you are out for more than 3 days you have to get a doctors note - that's standard procedure at many companies so I'm not sure what the issue is with that.
I've never been charged for a crew meal, but then again I wasn't one of the pilots who was abusing the crew meal system to begin with. Crew meals are rather expensive ($40 to 75 each on the average) and we were asked to chip in $10 for a crew meal. Remember per diem? That's there to cover your expenses such as MEALS while on tour. As soon as the new policy went into effect the abuse of the crew meals stopped.
If I have a maintenance issue, yes, I've gotten phone calls by the powers that be to see what the issue is and see if I can possibly defer the item and continue. But if I say the plane is grounded, it's grounded and I have never been pressured to fly a plane that was unairworthy.
You complain about FO cell phone usage. Avantair gives FO's $25 each month toward the use of their cell phones. Unless someone has a horrible cell plan, the FO's are making a few extra bucks on that deal.
The FO flying policy, well, it is what it is. About 45% of the flights are empty and FO's are flying them. Once FO's reach 225 hours, they are allowed to fly live legs so that means FO's are now flying the other 5% of the flights that the captains once were flying. If you're captains weren't letting you fly live legs after a year, then maybe the problem isn't the captains or the policy.
Yes, when you were hired, FO's were upgrading at around the one year mark. It would not be cost effective to continue to upgrade FO's when the need for captains is not there. You seem to have a sense of entitlement to the fourth stripe and when you didn't get it you left. The economy changed and we had to adjust many things along with it, including our upgrades. To hold the company negatively responsible for that seems just a little selfish, don't you think?
Avantair has been a great place to work for me. Perfect? No, but it's getting better every day as reflected in our latest financials which were released today. It seems that it is mutually beneficial that you left Avantair, BTDI. You are obviously happier and we are better off for it.
I've heard what your new job is and I wish you the best of luck in your career progression. I'm just sorry you felt the need to sling mud as you walked out the door - not surprised, just sorry.
