Pinnacle

[TheCleaner]

Going to interview with Pinnacle soon, and have been looking for info on the company - not a lot out there. Anyone working there that knows such things as upgrade times and benifit plans?

 

[Mtnjam]

beny's

I just got hired and start training in Jan. They said in the interview upgrade time is 14 to 16 months. Must have 3500hrs total, but only 3,000 total if you have 500 in type which most guys will.
Seems to be a good company. Growing and purchasing one or two R.J's per month?? I think?? Hiring alot right now. Pinnacle seems to have good medical and dental and jumpseat privs with NWA and I'm not sure about the other airlines. I'm excited, only thing is they have a no paid training program. about 8 weeks.

 

[CL600Pilot]

The financial benefits at Pinnacle - medical, dental, 401K - are better than nothing but would probably only be considered 'good' if you don't currently have any or have never had another job to compare them against. The 401K is a joke.

CL

 

[DoinTime]

The financial benefits at Pinnacle - medical, dental, 401K - are better than nothing but would probably only be considered 'good' if you don't currently have any or have never had another job to compare them against. The 401K is a joke.

CL

Medical and dental services are not as great as they could be but if you take your time and follow instructions you shouldn't have to many problems. Both programs have pretty good financial coverage and they are way cheap to subscribe to when compared to a broad scope of Americans that are offered these coverages. Really good infact when compared to other company's where you are labled "labor."

401K sucks.

Priority jumpseat with NW and Mesaba. Should have CASS online by spring.

Pass benefits on the NW system (and most codeshares) are getting better but still lag a little behind industry standards.

 

[Lear70]

Based on your flight times you might not do too badly. Upgrades should continue as they just announced another 10 aircraft coming our way (most of us were expecting this) and another 175 in the air (we'll probably get another chunk of those - no one is ramping up their training department to be ready for them in time). Last aircraft delivery now slated for October '05 which means upgrade classes through September (short upgrade class - like two weeks for upgrade training).

That means we're going to get lean on upgrades again, look for low seniority upgrades for the vacancies effective May through September - if you have the time, you might get an upgrade slot. Bad news, you might end up on reserve for several YEARS and reserve at this company is ANYTHING but pretty.

Quality of life? If you live in your domicile - Good. If you commute - Bad unless you're based in DTW then it's so-so (unless of course you're on reserve). Did I mention reserve sucks?

Bennies? Decent. Pay? If you have to ask, you haven't done your homework (I'm assuming with your experience you have but we know about assumptions). Schedules? Depends on the domicile and whether or not you commute. Coworkers? Top-notch, very cool people to work with for the most part. Management? Well, let's just say I got subpoenaed to testify tomorrow for a previous coworker's wrongful termination lawsuit and that I have 14 open grievances, none of which can be addressed because the union is too busy fighting wrongful termination and disciplinary grievances to get to the payroll grievances.

If you don't have any better options, it's not a bad place to hang your hat until something better comes along. Good luck!