Pilot cell phone reimbursment question

[JetCapt69]

don't you have a phone at home? what the heck would you need to use it at home for? personal calls? come-on....gimme a break.

 

[msw]

What's a Blackberry?

I admit I'm an old guy. I remember when computers filled a whole building and you interfaced with them via punch-cards. I'm still getting used to e-mail. I remember when outer marker outbound was called "high station".

So can one of you young whippersnappers tell me what is a Blackberry and what it does?

 

[aeronautic1]

The old days

Yeah, and when I was in the Coast Guard, I served on a lightship and Ocean Station November (anyone remember this?) between the west coast and Hawaii. These young know it all punks... give me a wiz wheel and a stop watch any day. Electronic feldercarb!! My first phone was two soup cans and a string!!! The first two digits in a phone number were associatied with a name like ALhambra 2-6996. And we had black and white TV... and LIKED IT!!!

 

[FltOps]

That was not that long ago. Good old days...
We could trust people back then...

 

[aeronautic1]

yeah...

... and pilots were an asset, not fodder.

 

[SheGaveMeClap]

My understanding is the SICs still receive the phone cards, PICs do not. They get to use the Blackberry. In our fleet, our PMs said we can still use the Blackberrys for personal calls. They haven't put a restriction on it, yet. XPs are limited, we aren't. At least we are consistent!!

 

[JetCapt69]

voice message

Joe put out a message that said "all" pilots were getting the blackberry's (for you old folks, that is a personal data assistant (PDA) that is also a cell phone.

The distribution began with PM's, check airman, PIC's then SIC's.

From what I heard from OCC, many times a crew has been put on standby, then they are not able to be reached while hanging out at the beach or where ever. So with the blackberry, it is to take place of personal phones, pagers, etc. It can be used for personal phone calls while on duty (no phone card), but each blackberry has a total of 1000 minutes. Blackberry to blackberry calls are unlimited, any other call is deducted from the 1000 minutes.

Keep in mind, this is info from the OCC, so take it for what it's worth. I have heard it from other sources too.

 

[GREAT LAKES]

Ori
don't you have a phone at home? what the heck would you need to use it at home for? personal calls? come-on....gimme a break.

Well I don't have a "phone" to my house. I built my house 3400' back into my property. Verizon wanted $2800 to put a phone line in. So we use Starband for internet and use cell phones. My company pays for a cell that I can use as much as I want. Our plan has 1000 any time min and unlimited nights and weekends, plus unlimited nationwide direct connect. No brainer.

 

[JetCapt69]

Great Lakes

Sounds like you should have looked into the phone service before building a house back in the boonies. I don't blame you though in that situation.

Do you work for Options? That comment was intended for the whining Options guy. No one is happy until the world is handed to them on a silver platter. We could have the best aircraft, the best contract, the best uniforms, the best crew meals, the highest pay in the industry, the most days off, the least days working, first class seats to and from work, 5 star hotels, personal massage therapists in our rooms, etc. etc. etc.

And you know what? Someone would complain that their salad was not crisp enough. Get my point?