Pinnacle Air Services

[Dave J]

Why would managment even get involved or how would they know the two crew members should remain in contact with each other and just take care of it between them. This is the hotel I am at and number this is where you are and that is it. Trip comes in Captain calls you see you at the airport at such and such time. I am curious who in managment you think doesn't like it send me a private message. Remember most managment have not sat through indoc and that is where we are told it is okay to stay where you like.

 

[MNR]

macpilots scenario is exactly the stuff I have no intrest in dealing with. I don't care if mngt approves or not of staying at seperate hotels bottom line its one more thing I have to deal with after a day of flying. I would much rather have dispatch working on it for me so when I get where I am going I just go where they have us set up. The people I am based with all prefer Hilton brands and we're all Diamond members so we would just lean that way if we had to find our own. Sounds like nothing is going to change right away anyways. Mngt said we would get to put in our 2 cents about most of these issues. They do want to eventually have similar policies used on each cirtificate. Honestly my opinion on the issue will be based on seeing the scale they use to determine how much they give you in a certain city. If its reasonable and I can see myself at least breaking even most of the time thats fine.

 

[TennLear60]

Why would managment even get involved or how would they know the two crew members should remain in contact with each other and just take care of it between them. This is the hotel I am at and number this is where you are and that is it. Trip comes in Captain calls you see you at the airport at such and such time. I am curious who in managment you think doesn't like it send me a private message. Remember most managment have not sat through indoc and that is where we are told it is okay to stay where you like.

Dave, you know as well as I do that our D.O. has told us that he does not care who stays where, or stays in the same hotel, just comply with the GOM per call out times. I know he doesn't like to see taxi rides that some take just to save themselves $20 on a hotel that is 30 miles away. Granted, in some cases this is unavoidable. Most cases hotels are being passes on the way. This is per-diem given to us to use for food and lodging, not to make income on. That is their fault for making it their income. I have talked with two of our F.O.'s that have complained about being caught up in that situation with a captain of ours. They didn't know that they did not have to stay at the same hotel with the captain. They can stay where ever they like. So, now they know. I did walk away with a few extra bucks last month. All went into savings for that rainy day. The only thing that goes in my budget is the $50 day pay. I do wish that in the future management would take that $50 times 16 times 12 and just add it to our salary. I see the point in the day pay, but then you may be short of money because the plane may be down for maintenance so they don't send you out. That's my 2 cents.

Had a great time at the beer fest this time off. Should have been here Dave.

J

 

[Dave J]

macpilots scenario is exactly the stuff I have no intrest in dealing with. I don't care if mngt approves or not of staying at seperate hotels bottom line its one more thing I have to deal with after a day of flying. I would much rather have dispatch working on it for me so when I get where I am going I just go where they have us set up. The people I am based with all prefer Hilton brands and we're all Diamond members so we would just lean that way if we had to find our own. Sounds like nothing is going to change right away anyways. Mngt said we would get to put in our 2 cents about most of these issues. They do want to eventually have similar policies used on each cirtificate. Honestly my opinion on the issue will be based on seeing the scale they use to determine how much they give you in a certain city. If its reasonable and I can see myself at least breaking even most of the time thats fine.

Just to give you an idea of what you can expect on per diem pay out. You get $141.00 for most U S cities we have a list of high cost cities which is put out by the goverment it is part of standard conus in those select cities some are year round some are seasonal you are paid $226.00 a day. You also recieve $226.00 if you are out of the country. Most of us have a copy of the list showing the cities and the difined areas that pay out at high cost, so you should be able to get a copy either from the company or one of us when the time comes. Yea you have to do a little extra work in that you book your own rooms but like I said I have never not broke even the least I have ended up on the postive side is $300.00 this year and as much as $1000.00.

 

[MNR]

Here is the thing I would gladly pay $300 a year to not have to worry about it. Book my room, tell me where to stay, no spliting crews etc. Last time I was in Cabo for example the room was over $350 and that was the cheapest we could find. I would have lost $700 for the week or I would have to go to mngt and beg for more.

You want to make it really easy and save paperwork. Don't give me per diem, don't give me any extra money, just give me a credit card and tell me to charge everything to the company ... meals, hotel, transportation etc. Of course within a week somone would ruin that scenario and I would never expect a 135 company to do that but one can dream right?

 

[macpilot]

I think dave ment 300 to 1k per 2 week rotation. And mgmt would deffinatly work with you in the cabo situation.

 

[slickmagneto]

Here is the thing I would gladly pay $300 a year to not have to worry about it. Book my room, tell me where to stay, no spliting crews etc. Last time I was in Cabo for example the room was over $350 and that was the cheapest we could find. I would have lost $700 for the week or I would have to go to mngt and beg for more.

You want to make it really easy and save paperwork. Don't give me per diem, don't give me any extra money, just give me a credit card and tell me to charge everything to the company ... meals, hotel, transportation etc. Of course within a week somone would ruin that scenario and I would never expect a 135 company to do that but one can dream right?

The $300-$1000.00 is PER MONTH not yearly.

 

[MNR]

Ahh my bad. Sounds like your talking about 2 weeks solid on the road though? The way I read it he sounded like he was talking about per year not per week.

 

[TennLear60]

Company will do this in the extreem circumstance of hotel cost. We pay for what we find (say $350) and expense to the company what ever is over the $226 on the high side. Food will be expensed right now at $30 a day ($10 per meal, I know that isn't much for out of country. This is a very rare situation. This has happened to me only once over two years. I didn't walk away with free money on that trip. Like Dave I have walked away with as little as $300 to as high as $1000 over a two week rotation. I'd rather be in charge of finding my own hotel than someone in the office finding the cheapest place for me to stay in. Yeah, I like my diamond membership at Hilton. I usually stay at Hilton properties. I'll do Priceline.com in other cases if I cannot get a Hilton within per-diem range or if the FBO doesn't have rates with a good hotel. This takes all of five minutes to find a hotel. Well worth it versus having the office find me a motel 6. This has worked well for all of us. Yeah, I would like to see them give us a card and say "here ya go!" That ain't gonna work though.

 

[MNR]

Thing is our JR dispatchers have never booked us in bad hotels. Well...not never there have been a couple times when we had to stay at a Super 8 or Best Western but it was the only thing avaiable....some smaller towns don't have much as we all know. However they want to do it is fine. I am still not completely convinced but we will see.

What I don't understand is the day pay? is it $50 or $30 or $10 per meal period?