Cargo 360?

[slinky]

For my wife and I it is about 180 per month. I am can only guess that kids would add maybe another hundred or so? The plan is blue cross premeria. Actually very very good.

 

[unwashed]

$243.58 per month includes dental, vision, small life insurance policy, and health, for a family of four.

Delta Dental
VSP for vision
Premera Blue Cross health.

Its good coverage. Our first was born under that program with my wifes work and we paid about 1000 out of a 28000 dollar bill. Previous company was GreatWest and was also a good insurance program. I think a few of the military guys are in it because it is great coverage. Got to go I hear the fish calling my name.

 

[Tnkr Pilot]

Thanks!

Appreciate the good info.

 

[StripAlert]

Do you guys ever layover in L.A.? If you do, how often?

We're usually in L.A. three nights a week, but it's not exactly a layover, unless you count three hours of "rest" in the Hacienda before your commute home as a layover. It's only 5 hours block to/from ANC, so if it's not the start/end of your trip, you're probably on a turn, or a least a DH. LAX, ORD, and JFK tend to be injection points, with the vast majority of the layovers happening in ANC and to a slightly lesser extent ICN. ANC-LAX-ANC and ANC-ORD-ANC are very common, especially for American FE's, as the ex-KAL PFE's can only fly the ICN-ANC route.

As my big buddy "unwashed" said, we're for all intents and purposes home-based, with a confirmed ticket to/from each trip and the hotel. Typically, the east-coasters will commute to JFK and the Seattle / Portland crowd starts and stops at LAX, with ORD balancing out the load.

There is no bidding per se. We just don't have the aircraft and schedule flexibility right now to run a real bid system. There are fairly standard rotations, but they occasionally flex to accommodate KAL's desires. We bid days off instead, which seems to be working out pretty well for me, but as a fresh-from-the-military guy, I don't have much of a basis of comparison. I can say that I got Thanksgiving and Christmas off last year, and the only reason I worked New Year's is because I didn't ask not to. (I flew over Halloween, too, but made the best of it, surprising the soon-to-be new Chief Pilot by coming forward from the darkened crew rest area wearing a "Scream" mask and black robe while carrying a plastic dagger--so much for air cargo security.) It's pretty easy to juggle a military reserve job at this company (and I commute to both), and the schedulers work with you.

You've got to give them 20 days of availability during a calendar month to earn the 60 hour guarantee. Typically, you'll get two 7 day trips (with a half-day commute on each end), but sometimes maybe just a single 10-day'er. Once the schedule's written, your non-scheduled days are yours too, although there is a system in place to match crews with unanticipated flying, but it's pretty fair overall, and things have been running pretty much according to schedule lately. Utilization averages about 5.5 hours per day for front-seaters and about 5.0 for the American FE's. I wouldn't count on blasting the guarantee out of the water every month, but you can ask to fly extra if you want, and 20 days will almost certainly yield 80+ hours.

For those asking about flight time requirements, I'd say you could characterize that as flexible. Other than the ex-Delta captain cadre, not many of us had the official published mins of 1,000 PIC and 3,000 total time in aircraft over 100,000 lbs. (I had 400 PIC and 1,200 total in heavies, with around 1,300 PIC and 2,500 total time, all mil turbine.) What we did have were connections to the guys starting this outfit, usually by two degrees of separation or less. Like Slink said, the few non-Delta, non-military guys here are mostly small- / mid-size jet captains with upwards of 5,000 TT. We have at least one pilot FE with no jet time at all (but oodles of multi-turboprop experience) who will be upgrading to FO in the fall, so again, it varies. Several of us have turned down employment offers or recalls at major or national airlines, and one has left, quite understandably, for UPS, so you really can't characterize this group of FO's as low-time or under-qualified. We've got choices, and, by and large, we stay for the intangibles, some of which are common across the air cargo industry while others seem to be unique to this company.

For example, one of the biggest benefits of working here is the people. Again, I've got no basis for comparison, but I've been told that it's pretty rare in today's airline industry for *every* single pilot laying over in Anchorage to show up at the hotel bar *every* night at the same time to drink, socialize, and have dinner together. Seems normal to me, though, because it's got a squadron feel to it.

And that's why--although we do have a few folks here that were hired out of the blue--most had at least one internal recommendation. (And the ones that didn't know anybody seem fit in just fine, so chalk that up to good interviewing.) So I'd say they're looking for people who excelled at whatever it was they were doing before, moreso than judging them based upon their equipment type or total time. If you're a good dude with a sense of humor and a thick skin who knows how to work and play hard, you probably pass the personality phase of the interview. You had probably better have at least two references from your previous life who think you're the $#!+, though, since that's what I've said about the guys I've recommended since I've been here, and that's likely what you'll be up against.

Anyway, before I start to sound like a cheerleader (and those of you who work with me know I'm far from it), I'd better get my own butt back down to The Moose--tomorrow's my day off. I would like to add, however, a point that never got rebutted from a page or so ago. We're not flying any cargo for NWA, just using their ramp and push crews to gas and go in ANC under Korean's contract, so don't worry Cobraair75drvr, we won't be racing you guys to the bottom anytime soon. And, since anyone who's seen KAL's cargo operation in Incheon can attest that they've got more freight to move than they could possibly handle, our competition is more along the lines of Southern Air, but it's not so much about underbidding as it is outperforming.

For those concerned that we are helping to lower the collective bar with the compensation package, have a little patience and reevaluate things in a year or two. As someone said in another thread (I think on APC), FedEx, UPS, and Southwest were probably considered "bottom-feeders" at one time as well. For now, the package is competitive enough with our peers in years 1-3, and we're making inroads every day and winning small battles as the company grows and prospers and continues to recognize the contribution that its group of professional aviators are making toward its success. Sure, we wouldn't be a proper pilot group if we didn't think we deserved six-figure compensation for 10 days on the road every month, but it's not something you attain overnight from a startup.

 

[slinky]

Yea, what he said. :beer:

 

[1900heavy]

Thans a lot for the info.

 

[B747Flyer]

StripAlert couldn't have said it better.

 

[ootskdog]

thanks for all the good info StripAlert!

sounds like a place that might have a very bright future.

 

[tsky]

Do you folks have any international flying or are all of your routes domestic?

 

[bcp7]

We are an ACMI carrier for KAL. All flights originate in ICN with a tech stop in ANC. Our 3 main US destinations are JFK, ORD, and LAX with one weekly trip to DFW. They go back to ICN via ANC