NW Airlink / Pinnacle

[dondk]

"I may be dumb, but I'm not stupid..."

I am not going to take that remark personally but I am not stupid either...

1 year ago, Pinnacle was a great deal! Upgrade was when you had the time, most guys were upgrading in a matter of months and "at that" time we were looking at growing to 1300 pilots (we would be the top 40%) within a year or so.
Lines were 90+ hours with 12 or better days off, overnights in the jet ran 14+ hours (now 8 hours is considered long)

We were short 8 or more fo's per base and planning to open more bases.
We were short on Captains that is why they were hiring street captains.

Life WAS sweet, key word is WAS.

9/11 screwed us over like many other companies. I can say many of us hired in the last 6 months prior to Septemebr feel screwed. Not directly by our company (some things yes) but by the whole reaction thereafter.

To add... some of our union reps were "suggesting" to us to put resumes in with Comair, they saw the writing on the wall.

Not stupid again, at the time Pinnacle had a lot to offer, who knows what it would have been like if 9/11 never happened? Who knows what the entire industry would be like if it never happened?

I have a job, albeit not the "job" I was offered a year ago, but I still have a job.

 

[PositiveRate]

No offense intended...I was just try to be self-deprecating. You hit the nail on the head, though. You have a job, I don't. I have a seniority number (furloughed) and an offer from a really good regional, but I don't "have" a job.

From what you described it sounds like NW Airlink is taking a similar dive to Eagle. I naively thought that was the place to be a year ago and have watched things just get worse and worse. I hope that the situation at NW Airlink turns around for you and the rest of the pilots there. Best of luck.

 

[FlyComAirJets]

Hey, wasn't Pinnacle on the front cover of May's Professional Pilot magazine as the 20002 Regional Airline of the Year?

 

[profjetpilot]

All I have to say is we have 37 or 38 jets right now. In a year from now we will have almost twice that. Be patient Linkers! Things will get better, I HOPE!!. The growing pains are brutal right now.

Just wait and see............

BTW - Reserve is'nt all that bad!!!!!
What other profession can you get paid to do absolutely nothing????

 

[dondk]

Positive Rate

I was not trying to put you down either... Personally I "wish" I was waiting a class date with a "top rate" regional.

What I meant by the "job" comment is that is all I have... A job, nothing more and at times it seems less. Very little enjoyment in a profession I normally enjoy. More BS at times then the pay is worth. Heck on furlough I was making more money from unemployment. Now that was worth it!

Trully doing nothing and getting paid is better than sitting on reserve, getting harrassed and putting up with all of the BS we have to put up with.

I do wish you the best at Comair and wish I was going there too... I keep sending that weekly resume in, but no calls yet!

Pinnacle is 1/2 way to the goal, but better than 3 years before a new contract. We are working on a contract that has more holes than a sponge and is more grey than black and white. The only black and white is the paper it is printed on!

For being brutal, it is and I just do not see it getting any better anytime soon.... As I mentioned earlier, we are not known for our planning and that is probably 1/2 of our problems. I just "HOPE" in 3 years we have the backbone Comair did to strike and to get a contract that they deserved. The standards have been set, and now it is time to rise to those standards.

 

[Jiminmem]

I guess things are a lot worse down in MEM and MSP, here in DTW the schedules are great. Just about every hard line we have has 13 or more days off, I'm a Captain and getting 17 off and with 2 years senority. We are still taking delivery of CRJs and each month we get more lines up here. True things will probably be kind of interesting this fall as the Saab guys tranistion over, we'll have to see. Planning here is definitely not a strong point as has been suggested.

As for upgrades the class that started the beginning of this month had 10 month guys, not sure how much less I'd like to see. People here want it to go back to last year where you were awarded upgrade while doing OE or hired on as a captain, those days are over and the same for just about every other carrier out ther. Comair is definitely a better place, but I'm happy here.