Pinnacle Air Services

[Rokit88]

why would you wear a shirt with epilauts but not wear bars? That looks stupid. I personally like the white dress shirt and grey pants.


rokit88

 

[TennLear60]

Our pants are not wool. Thay are plaid polyester. We wear those groovy oversized collar shirts with the pastel colors. You choice in color depending on your mood. Oh, and really wide ties and super cool platform boots. I am currently working on my afro. I have some cool gold chains to help accentuate my chest hair.

For real though. Glad to have you guys aboard. Lot's of changes to come. I haven't heard if there will be a change in uniform for you or not. Our uniform pants are actually a cotton polyester blend. Cool in the summer, but not warm in the summer. I like to wear the barn door long johns. Your choice there. Basic pilot shirt with striped epaulets. Pants and tie are navy blue. No wings or name tags are worn. Just an I.D. badge. We just got sweaters last week. They have holes for wings or name tags. I don't know if we are going to have anything to fill the holes though. Winter time is the leather jacket with velcro epaulets and badge.

Quick question for the 60 guys. What do the JetRide 60's have? Collins or UNS?

J

 

[Rokit88]

all of our 60s have collins boxes, but I've heard that were going to have to upgrade them soon.

 

[starcheckdriver]

I would also like to know more about the benifits and salery...all they said is I would be getting an "offer". .... just lots of questions to be answered at this point that I am sure will all come in time.

I was at the announcement meeting and therefore received the HR package already. It is very in depth and covers everything. The offer letter states your current salary, how much vacation you will get in 2006 from Pinnacle, and what you need to do to accept or decline the offer.

Summary of bennies:

1. Medical, dental, and vision for about $4 bi-weekly

2. Optional LT disability, ST disability, cancer coverage, heart coverage, additional life insurance coverage.

3. Pinnacle provides 100% paid life insurance equal to 1 year's salary (better than the $10,000 Airnet provided)

4. Health care is a PPO with 80/20 coverage, $500 deductible, $20 co-pay for primary care and a Rx card with $10 generic and $30 or so for brand name drugs

5. 401(k) with company matching of $0.50 on the $1.00 up to 3% of salary (same as Airnet, I think)

6. Direct deposit forms for pay beginning Sept. 8

The bennies look as good if not better than Airnet's. They are significantly cheaper too. As far as bennies go, it looks like JR guys are getting a better deal than what we currently have.

 

[starcheckdriver]

One thing that might change for JetRide is the per diem to come into line with PA's policy. I met a couple PA guys that said you get the government rate for lodging and meals and then just book your own hotels.

Our DO said yesterday that you guys get some kind of debit card for this money? Is that right? Or do you just put the hotel on your own credit card and get the government per diem rate reimbused to you later?

 

[75TH_RANGER]

we pay for the hotel and meals on our credit cards. then each friday we get a per diem check. the amount varies, depending on what city your in. low rate cities are $141, and high rate cities are $226

 

[starcheckdriver]

Do you also get a day pay rate for days your fly? Maybe $50, I heard?

 

[75TH_RANGER]

yeah $50 for days your on the road

 

[FL410guy]

Wish I could get my hands no a Penni Ops Manual.

 

[MNR]

Talked to the CP today. They said we won't notice any changes except benifits and where our check comes from at first.

I hope they don't change to the Pinnicle per diem policy. I think I even was in class with a guy from Pinnacle at one point who explained it to me. He was excited about it because he could make money if he got good rate on hotels. It seemed to me at the time that I have better things to do than shop for hotels around airports for a rate under my per diem. I am also not interested in carrying those kind of charges on my credit cards. I was never a fan of adding my per diem to what I made anyways. I am not interested in paying for my hotels out of my perdiem no matter how high it is. Its a good way to get screwed imho. Try to find a hotel on a Superbowl or Derby weekend.

There won't be any moving across cirtificates is what I was told. So even though the senority lists are the same the Pinnacle guys will not be able to bid the Jetride aircraft right away. It would involve new indoc etc. if they switched over. I am sure eventually they will merge us into one cirtificate but it will happen slowly is what I was told. Other old policys will change but slowly. Biggest change I see is the jump seat thing. We have one at our base that leaves every week hes off. Gonna be hard to commute.

You will see their ops manual long before you have to use it. Most of the stuff is probabily boilerplate anyways. Not sure if they are an eligable on demand operator and are able to use the 80% number etc. Not that it really matters because like I said from what I have been told we will be operating as seperate cirtificates for a while. The Pinnacle guys will notice more changes at first I think because they will be dispatched out of the Jetride office as of Sept 1st.

 

[starcheckdriver]

I hope they don't change to the Pinnicle per diem policy.

I talked to the JR DO yesterday and he seemed excited about this policy and wanted to move to it. He said it would reduce a lot of the workload as far as paperwork and booking hotels i.e. moving that load to the pilots.

I kinda agree with not wanting to do this. I know a lot of Pinnacle guys that seek out the Motel 6 and Super 8 for good deals. They stay in crappy hotels so they can bank the extra money. I say give us the $50 day pay and still book us in nice hotels and pay the $36 per diem.

 

[MNR]

Ya combine crappy Motel 6s and Super 8s with a couple long duty days and I'm trashed. Bottom line is the beds usually leave me with a sore back and a poor nights sleep.

 

[JJET44]

I'm in personal bankrupcy and don't have credit cards. I can't pay for rooms out of my own pocket!
What do I do?
Resign?

Just kidding!!

But what if I am? Is being able to have a credit card with over a Several thousand dollar limit terms of employment. What if my card is maxed out?

 

[starcheckdriver]

I'm in personal bankrupcy and don't have credit cards. I can't pay for rooms out of my own pocket!
What do I do?
Resign?

Just kidding!!

But what if I am? Is being able to have a credit card with over a Several thousand dollar limit terms of employment. What if my card is maxed out?

This is probably the reason we have to sign a consent for a credit bureau check in all the forms we received from PA's HR.

 

[MNR]

Pinnacle HR told me to leave the Credit Report form blank. I don't need people running CR on me when its not necessary.

 

[macpilot]

when we got hired at pa we were given 1k cash for perdiem and then get the checks every friday. So really you are not taking money out of your pocket. but for the other guys we put the grand in savings to collect interest and then use our credit cards to collect the miles.

Congratulations to all the jet ride pilots, I know its a big wieght of yall's shoulders.

 

[TennLear60]

I don't stay in Motel 6 or the like. I usually stay in Hilton or the like. Usually the FBO will have negotiated rates with the local hotels. If not, then it's priceline.com. Very rare that I lose out on the per-diem. Yes, race day can cause it's problems in finding a hotel. We just call our CP and tell him what we are faced with and we work out a solution. International to the islands is our biggest issue with per-diem. Sometimes, we need a little help from the office to find a place to stay. Still, I have come out positive each time. Can get a little stressfull trying to find a place to stay. I agree that one shouldn't count on per-diem as income. Bad things happen when you depend on that money as a means to paying your electric bill. There has been mention of a bank card that the office will deposit directly to for each pilot. This way no one has to wait for a check that can and has been lost in the mail. Plus, it is immediate and we won't have to wait until we get home to deposit the checks. I just hope that if this is a way to come then I hope it will be with Bank of America. They have the most branches than any other. Easy for me, too. On line banking makes our lives easier.

I'm sure other changes are in store for both sides. We have gone through quite a few changes here at PA before this became final. I guess for the reason of being prepared for the event of the buy out.

See you guys on the road.

J

 

[MNR]

Yes I was told today that the PA guys got a bunch of upgraded benifits to bring them on par with what was at Jetride before the final buyout happened. Nothing is going to change in the near future from what I am told except the PA guys will be using Jetride's dispatchers.

I guess we will just see what happens with the per diem and other issues.

 

[Downwind]

Just to clarify the day pay. You must be out on the road over the hour of midnight to collect. If you leave at 6 am and return at 8 pm then no pay. The based guys really take a beating on this. You also must overnight for the per diem, otherwise it is $10 for every meal time that you are out.

The $1050 paid to the pilots up front for per diem in PA's money, not yours. You have to repay this at your departure from the company. It is designed to keep you from living off your dollar too much.

Uniforms are paid for by the pilots. $26 each pay period. PA will replace worn items at no cost.

I don't think JR guys need to worry about PA folks "bidding" anything. Our senority means nothing except for vacation. We hire street captains that are "junior" to FO's.

Welcome aboard Windriders. If you get to ASG we have a great rate at the Extended Stay.

 

[starcheckdriver]

How does basing work at PA? Do pilots live in base? Does company pay for the move? Can you live anywhere and get airlined to the plane for duty? Right now, all JR pilots live in base for the most part, but I none of us want to move. That thought is probably the biggest stress right now.