Pinnacle Air Services

[MNR]

Sounds really complicated to me. We get a flat rate per day. Thats it. You do a 4 hour trip you get the day rate of $36 if you go international its $55 certain cities are $44 if your on a 14 hour day trip its the same rate. They give the Captains CC for the hotels.

From what I have been told there will be no bidding across certificates for quite a while if ever. They plan on maintaining both cirtificates for the forseeable future. You would have to go throgh the other cirts. inital indoc etc. to switch over, too much of an expense/hassle.

Jetride guys have a couple conference calls tomorrow to get questions answered, check you company e-mail for phone number and pin.

 

[JJET44]

How many pilots does PA have?

We have 49 pilots, excluding management pilots, at JR

 

[slickmagneto]

How many pilots does PA have?

We have 49 pilots, excluding management pilots, at JR

I think the number is 40. There may be more. Were the managed airplanes, ie. Gulfstreams, included in the deal?

 

[CFI4LIFE]

I think the number is 40. There may be more. Were the managed airplanes, ie. Gulfstreams, included in the deal?

Yes, but for the time being the two companies are going to remain on each ones exisiting certificate, so no bidding across the line. We can't fly your birds and you can't fly ours. I imagine that sometime down the road that will change, but not in the near future.

 

[JJET44]

I think the number is 40. There may be more. Were the managed airplanes, ie. Gulfstreams, included in the deal?

NEVER MIND

 

[slickmagneto]

JR Managed airplanes: What are the types and how many?

 

[JJET44]

JR Managed airplanes: What are the types and how many?

1 LR-60
1 C-VII
1 LR-31
1 GIII
1 GIV

 

[Stealthh21]

Its about time they got this out in the open. This was a true fact just before the thread started!

 

[Dave J]

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.

Well I don't know to many of the guys who stay in Motel 6. I had to only once and not by choice. Because of the way we run are per diem I have never ended up with less then 300.00 extra in cash and as much as 1000.00 at the end of my rotation each month. This is your money tax free. I don't look at it as part of my salerey that would be foolish, but it is good for drinking money, golf, or what ever. Now back to the hotel if you are paired with someone who wants to stay at the Motel 6 fine let them go. You have the right to stay where you want the crew does not need to stay at the same hotel just make sure you both are at the airport on time for a trip. Most of us do end up at the same hotel but there is nothing saying you have to.

 

[macpilot]

well I have had this exact problem on the last trip. The captian wants to stay at sleezy unsafe motel when we could get marriot for an extra 20. Or getting in at 2 am and the captian wanting to walk up and down the street checking motel rates to save and extra 5 bucks. It does get frustrating and I do stay at different motels every now and then but I don't think managment likes it. The extra money made is tax free.

 

[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?