JetBlue Q

[CaptainMark]

deleted

 

[jj21211]

jetblue call

This was too weird. I just got called today. Totally unexpected, havent updated for some time, thought I was kicking a dead horse. Same deal. I have a decent paying F2000 job 10 minutes from my house, fly with great people, and here comes the call I would have loved to have two years ago.
I really miss 'living the dream' with my pre 9/11 Usairways job, with Aruba, St. Croix, SAN, SFO, longs, but there are no replacement gigs like that anymore.
I have some thinking to do as well, but probably not very much. Thanks for a very timely thread, hope all my former AAA buds are doing well!

 

[CaptainMark]

that is a different deal...JB is probably a great place to work..but i guess your decision is based on how comfortable u are with the future of your corporate job...one friend called me about 6 years ago and had gotten hired at UPS but was going to turn it down because his citation job was down the street with good pay...he asked me and i told him it was a no brainer..go to UPS...he started in on how the company was long term with good retirement benefits and the CEO was looking at g4s etc..he did leave and 6 months later they sold the jet, the hangar and got rid of the flight department..he sends me a Xmas card every year...good luck on your decision...

 

[G4G5]

I am sure that B6 is a great place to work, and that the people are nice. I would think that the same thing applies at LUV.

That's not the point. You need to look at:

What is right for you and your family. Can you move to B6 and get a higher quality of life?

You need to talk to a financial planner and take a close look at the recovery point. You will be going from $110k to in all reality ERJ190 FO rates for the next 2 years. How much retirement will you be losing by not making the 110K and contributing you current amount. Compound that annual loss by 21 years. Then do the same for year two, and so on.

At 39 can your family take the financial hit. Mine couldn't. I have a couple of close buds who got me an early interview at UPS last Jan. When I mentioned to my pregnant wife that we would be living on $26k for the next year, she almost had the baby on the floor. It takes a long time to over come a $100K+ salary loss, when you start to compound it out over time. Then you have to commute on top of the pay hit. I had to say, "no thanks".

Can you pay your current liabilities with your new salary (car, house, yada yada). You may say yes but when mama has to give up HBO and other things that she is use to. Then the first time you are on the road and something goes wrong, well, forget it. If mama ain't happy, nobodies happy.

I may live to regret it but so far I am not regretting quiting Delta and NWA for AA. Nor am I regretting saying no thanks to USAir and B6. But I need to preface that with, that's me. You need to do the soul searching. Do the number crunching. Have the talk with the old lady. Then sit down and think it out.

Conversely, you may not like Netjets and may have your own reasons why B6 could make your life better.
The one piece of advice I will give you is if you go for the interview. In all reality you will take the job. The romance of something new and the possibility of something better will just make you look at you present job in a new ad negative light. From experience, I can tell you. Don't go into it with the attitude of, let me get them to offer me the job first. Because you will talk yourself into taking it.

Have the questions answered first. Save B6 the time and money and give the spot to someone else, if it's not what you absolutely want.

Good luck.

 

[JB Bus Drvr]

Lot of good posts here. I've been with JB for almost five years and it's been a good ride so far. That being said, there's a lot to be said for senority, equipment and not commuting. Tough choice. I would say that in my own circumstances, I left a job for life, virtually, to come here. It ended up being a good move, but if I had to do it today, I'd stay where I was at. Again, senority. I'd be happy to see you in my right seat, but there's no problem if you end up staying at NJA.

Good luck with your decision!

 

[side stick-n]

hydrarkt,

Tough decision for you. Here's a few other tidbits that might help. The 190 reliability issues are coming to an end. Most of the bugs have been worked out and we are seeing days of 100% reliability and schedule integrity. We will also be opening a BOS crewbase in June. When comparing your pay, I would guess you're looking at close to 36 months before making over 100 grand again. (Yes, I feel confident the 190 capt pay will pass this mark within the next 24 months) One of the previous post indicated that the last 320 captain is probably already on the property. The numbers would indicate that at the present order of aircraft. However, based on the past actions of DN and company, that may or may not be the last of the expansion.

 

[Sctt@NJA]

It may be about the pay. NJA tops out MUCH higher than jetBlue ($167k DA2000EX versus $137k jetBlue top CA)

I was just looking through the NJA contract and happened to look at the BBJ payscale. More trivia than reason to stay or anything:

Current top NJA earner is on year 6 of the BBJ scale (this scale works by year in type unlike most of the others that work by year with company) $198,375 BASE PAY! With special assignments and extended days ect. I would expect we have a small number of guys with 250k or more on their W2s by years end.

This scale continues up to year ten: $229,851 base pay

Cola increases (max 2.5 percent) after year 10 in that program.

These are the numbers for the reserve schedule, which from what I understand tends to be popular with the BBJ guys.

 

[Lear70]

How many people actually will make it to BBJ Captain among current NJA pilots? 2%? 3%? Gotta compare apples to apples, and the 2000EX is an obtainable aircraft, that's why I used to the comparison.

There's no way I'd fly the reserve schedule if I couldn't help it. I like 14+ days off.

 

[Sctt@NJA]

Very true. As I said it is more trivia than anything else. Very few can expect a BBJ opportunity here.

 

[Uppercrust]

Lot of good posts here. I've been with JB for almost five years and it's been a good ride so far. That being said, there's a lot to be said for senority, equipment and not commuting. Tough choice. I would say that in my own circumstances, I left a job for life, virtually, to come here. It ended up being a good move, but if I had to do it today, I'd stay where I was at. Again, senority. I'd be happy to see you in my right seat, but there's no problem if you end up staying at NJA.

Good luck with your decision!

Would you be happy to see me in your right seat???

 

[Hawker dude]

How many people actually will make it to BBJ Captain among current NJA pilots? 2%? 3%? Gotta compare apples to apples, and the 2000EX is an obtainable aircraft, that's why I used to the comparison.

There's no way I'd fly the reserve schedule if I couldn't help it. I like 14+ days off.

Dude, you work at pinnacle what the hel* do you know about a life.

let's see you flew mail for a crap outfit that went out of business because they pissed off the post office, I don't know how you do that. my brother works at the post office and he's a moron. now you work at pinnacle, another craphole outfit. then you say NJA sucks? stay where your at moron.

 

[johnsonrod]

Both are good choices. But if I had a 100K+ salary, a domicile of my choice and a nice modern aircraft to fly, I would find it very difficult to give that up and move back to the right seat for years and have to commute. I don't like the 121 operation that I work for and I am considering the fractionals myself. I get really tired of the 121 routine and I like the idea of interacting with interesting passengers and visiting some exotic locals (I know that TEB is not exotic - but neither is JFK).

I wouldn't leave Netjets, but it is your life and a difficult decision no doubt. Again, both are good choices and you should pick one and stick with it.

 

[Dave Siegel]

I wouldn't leave NJA to go to jetblue based on my experiences.

Hi, it's Dave!

Based on listening to the experts who doubt that JetBlue can emerge from the hole that they've dug for themselves, if I were you, I'd stay at NJA also.

 

[Longhorn]

Dave, nice to see ya. I am suprised to see it took you this long. Hope all is well.

Longhorn

 

[sayagain?]

Dave, why don't you find a hole to crawl into?

 

[Lear70]

Dude, you work at pinnacle what the hel* do you know about a life.

let's see you flew mail for a crap outfit that went out of business because they pissed off the post office, I don't know how you do that. my brother works at the post office and he's a moron.

Crap outfit that pissed off the post office?

Are you really that big of an idiot? Well, since you're related to a self-admitted moron, I guess it might be genetic.

We didn't piss off the post office at Express One, that was Emery. WE were running 98% reliability and 99.2% on-time. Match that at your airline, buddy. Yeah, that's what I thought. The USPS yanked the contract to give it to FedEx purely for monetary reasons (FedEx underbid everyone by about 15% by utilizing the same aircraft they were running at night for FedEx freight and running most of the postal ops during the day).

Interestingly enough, right before the deal was inked (in other words, after the senior management had worked out the deal and it was done), the senior management in the postal system all went to work for FedEx. Can you say "inside job"? Very good, keep reading.

Incidentally, at that "crap-hole" outfit, I was making $90k a year getting 16 days off a month (6 on 8 off). I can recognize "quality of life" just fine, thanks for asking.

now you work at pinnacle, another craphole outfit. then you say NJA sucks? stay where your at moron.

Oh I'll admit PCL sucks, always have, but just WHERE do you think I said that NJA sucks?

Are your reading skills REALLY that poor? Do you really fly with that sub-par of comprehension or are you one of those dispatch-types that lurks on here.

Read what I said again, this time vvveeerrrryyy ssslllloooooowwwlllly and think about it. Here, I'll save you some time and paraphrase:

Pay: NJA tops out much higher than jetBlue,

QOL: 14 days off from almost day one,

(and my personal favorite)"If I had taken the NJA offer back in 2001 when they offered it there is no way you could pry me out of that seat..."

Hope this clears it up for you.

Now you were saying something about me bashing NJA and being a moron...?

 

[Lake Alice]

Hydrakrt,

Asking most of the naysayers on this board is a tricky proposition. I think your best bet is to get in touch with many of the former NJA guys who are currently here and let us tell you what life is like. None of the guys are screaming "rah, rah" JB guys but we do like what we do and where we do it and well give you an honest opinion. We live in many different locations, all of us commute,some of us are older than you, and all of us are very happy. Is it perfect, no, but is it better than where we were, yes. Our descisions to come to JB vary but our reasons to stay and believe in the success of the company are pretty similar. If you are interested send me a PM.

 

[clueless]

I started a similar but more generic thread last month:

http://forums.flightinfo.com/showthread.php?t=72431&page=4&highlight=frax

Although it devolved into a pi$$ing match between a few guys (the usual suspects, go figure), the responses that were on topic were much more slanted towards going 121.

Would all the NJ guys that have posted here saying they would not leave NJ for JB have the same opinion of (not) leaving NJ for SWA?

 

[On Your Six]

I started a similar but more generic thread last month:

http://forums.flightinfo.com/showthread.php?t=72431&page=4&highlight=frax

Although it devolved into a pi$$ing match between a few guys (the usual suspects, go figure), the responses that were on topic were much more slanted towards going 121.

Would all the NJ guys that have posted here saying they would not leave NJ for JB have the same opinion of (not) leaving NJ for SWA?

Again, giving up a non-reserve left seat in which you earn $100+K, live where you want (no commuting), have 9 weeks off per year, fly an advanced aircraft to a much wider variety of destinations and are afforded union protection would be difficult to give up... That's just my opinion.

 

[Lake Alice]

For myself and many of the folks you speak with who left NJA they just couldn't imagine doing that job for the next 30 years.

Commuting is what it is. For some its easy and other not. For myself its not that big of a deal. I still know exactly when my trip ends and what my options for getting home are. There isn't some idiot scheduler making me sit around for hours with nothing to do just because. I land, park and go home. And for the Seigel type idiots out there we do clean up the plane before we leave as you do at NJA. There is a lot to be said for teamwork.
Flexibility in schedule is by far one of the greatest benefits. Trading trips, droping trips and just plain knowing what you are doing and when you are doing it is tremendous. Also I hated having my sleep schedule changed at a moments notice either. As far as going to different and exciting destinations, how exciting can landing somewhere and leaving 30 minutes later really be. NJA flying isn't like it was in traditional corporate where we would go to the islands and stay for a few days.

As for stability? Time will tell for both and arguments can be made. The fractionals will have many issues to deal with in the future as will 121 carriers. Those of us who left for JB obviously believe in our descision otherwise we wouldn't have done it.