Comair or Pinnacle

[ilkwamh2]

Which city do you live in currently? If you plan on moving to whichever base they put you in, then I'd pick Comair over Pinnacle. Otherwise, if you live in a Pinnacle domicle city, then I'd go with Pinnacle. Pay is much better with Comair. $23/hr. 1st year at Comair vs. $20/hr. $37/hr. 2nd year at Comair vs. $24/hr. $41/hr. 2nd year if you're on the 70 seater at Comair. Comair is a good company with some good people.

-W

 

[PeanuckleCRJ]

Depends on your goals... At comair you will have better QOL and pay, esp as an FO..but you will be right seat for considerably longer.

All depends on what you want out of your career and the priorities.

I am 100% glad that I went to Pinnacle 2 years ago. Times are changing though, but youll still get to the left seat faster over here in pineapple land.

 

[DoinTime]

That's interesting. Did they go in as street captains?

None that I know of. Most did upgrade within the first year though. Seemed like most that I know of that made the move did so for locality reasons. Living in domicile at Pinnacle isn't a bad way of life regardless of what anybody says. I usually get 12-13 days off per month. This might suck to some but I sleep in my own bed every night. I typically only work 7.5 hour duty days and fly two legs for a monthly credit in the mid 90's.

It all depends on your perspective. I would be miserable if I had to commute in to do 4-day trips, even if I had 18 days off per month. Flying day trips Monday-Thursday from 9:00am to 4:30pm is what I enjoy. The pay could be better at PCL but that will come with time.

 

[finnjl]

DoinTime

Does Pinnacle pay overblock? IE: fly 90 hours and get 15 hours of overblock pay

 

[finnjl]

I guess my main concern with Comair is what is Delta going to do with them. Pinnacle seems to be somewhat more stable but the QOL is not as good as Comair. I am a commuter either way and I know commuting is not the most enjoyable thing to do especially commuting reserve.

I used to be in the business and got out when Delta closed DFW only to realize that flying was a better job than I thought it was.

 

[RP170]

yeah! Go to Mesa! At least with Mesa you have more job security and way faster upgrade times. Pay isnt the best, but u can upgrade to Capt. in just under 2 years. 1st year Capt. pay is much better than 3rd or 4th year F/O pay somewhere else. Good Luck! Its going to be tough under either one of those companies.

WTF are you talking about?

 

[DoinTime]

Define overblock. Usually monthly credit is well over monthly block time depending on the type of schedule you fly. You'll have to define what you mean by "overblock" though.

 

[chperplt]

I think he means over guarantee by "over block".

 

[finnjl]

Yes, I mean over guarantee.

The reason I ask I think at MESA if you fly 90 hours you still only get paid for guarantee which is usually around 75 hours. Is that true? As I would find it hard to believe pilots would work like that.

 

[dondk]

We have a "trip value" system, similar to MESA's but not as bad. Most of our trip values are within 5 minutes (+/-) block, some are better some are slighty worse. Back in my days at Mesa, credit was 10-15 minutes less than block, you'd fly 95 hours and get paid for 85 and that was the norm back then.

We also have no trip value legs where you are paid straight block. To get over block pay you need to go over 15 minutes of the trip value.

In a nutshell, depending on the trips you can walk away with some or give some free flying to the company. Last trip I did was 25:15 block, paid 26:55 credit for a trip that was scheduled for 26:33 block. I came in under an extra hour of block.

Not all trips are that way though, some are backwards with 27 block and 26:30 credit, it all depends on where you are flying to.

The only way you make more credit than block is highspeeds, on average your block and credit at this company is close. Most lines are blocked at 86 or better with similar credit, guarantee is 75 hours.