Pinnacle

[Flyingdutchman]

Sounds like a plan brother. Don't tell my gf though.

and don't forget to bring your gf !

 

[dondk]

Actually yeah trips that end at 2030 are commutable. I dont give presents to schedulers I just see what I can get from open time...IF the reserve looks good I just try to drop the first out and back and my trip becomes commutable... It works out great if I have an out and back with a 3 hour sit after that. After 4 years here your probably a Captain.. and if not then your bidding in the top 20 of FO so dont know why u are complaining. As a Captain it is more difficult due to the current staffing.

If you dont belive me thats fine I really dont care. I know what I get isnt perfect but its the best I can do with my seniority and I think its pretty good considering Ive been here for 1.5 years. Commuting is what you make of it.. there are good and bad months... for those interested in comming here you cant really grasp what ur life will be like from reading posts from co-workers that go against what they all say. It is just not as bad as people make you believe and for that reason not as good as others say.

I agree with him... I am a Captain and have been here 5 years. I don't live in domicile, don't have a crash pad, and buy maybe 4-5 hotels a year. I commute and it is about a 1 hour commute. I am willing to give up weekends, they don't mean much to me as I can get more done on a weekday than a weekend and the lines for restaurants, movies, sport events are shorter on a week night.

Commuting is what you make of it. I don't get the guys/gals who live in FL, GA, TX, TN, SC, NC and constantly bitch about the commute to DTW when the one to MEM is easier (much easier). Just like the handful of peep's who live on the west coast and commute to DTW when MSP is easier.

Make the commute easier and your QOL may increase, keep it difficult and what else do you expect? Live somewhere difficlut to commute from and that is the price you have to pay, it is no different if you work for PNCL, any other regional, LCC or major.

 

[dal757]

If you lived in Houston and wanted to commute with Pinnacle where would you choose to be based? (I'm assuming Mem) and how workable would it be..

 

[dondk]

Mem is the easiest. The downside of MEM is eventhough a easy commute the lines in MEM tend to be a day shorter than the northern bases.

Between NW and CO there are about 10 flights a day (direct) and a bunch more "if" you needed to double leg it. I don't know all of the show and release times in MEM, but it looks fairly commutable nor do I know how the loads run.

 

[Cokie907]

Ok...the BS on this board is driving me nuts. Time to set things straight! I have been here 5 years, I was the first "street captain" on the CRJ and I sat reserve for 3 years (minus like 2 months where I actually scored a line). I have always been DTW based so my comments are based on that frame of reference.

QOL is very rough when you are either a junior FO or junior CA and you don't live in base. I have said before that this translates into something like a 9 month FO or a 5 plus year captain (right now). I don't care where you live unless its FWA, DAY, ERI, SBN or FNT.....getting in to DTW for a morning trip and honoring the commuter clause restriction requires you to come in the night before. The lines for May were fairly good but still require me to whittle my 16 days off down to 13 days off if I come in the night before. Up until May the lines were truly draconian as they were leaving even the senior folks with as little as 12 days off after commutes. This is unacceptable......

The reason that a senior captain (12 plus years in most cases) had to suck up 12 days off to get 80 hours credit was found in the trip pairings. For April, trips had routinely included 5 hour sits in their construction. Many were even out of domicile, so you could not go to the crash pad, drive your car around or do anything. You could just sit at "Maui Taco" and watch the pax walk by or go down to the crew lounge and vegggg with the rest of us. What a life to live eh? Trip pairings are the key and nothing in the current contract mandates that they be efficient!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, think about all this before you come to Pinnacle. Your QOL is not in the "Guiding Principles", of course that doesn't matter to most folks who are only looking to make their logbooks fat! :-D

 

[dondk]

Cokie907...

C'mon.. you were the guy commuting back and forth on PM reserve:laugh:.

I never mentioned the commuter clause, I don't personally recommend that section of the contract to anyone. Although... if you read it, and really read it there is NO limitation on how many times you can actually use it

It is all what you make of it, that is the bottom line... QOL is not on the top of managements priority list and will never be and the "new" contract willnto fix it either...

 

[Pattern-Master]

Anyone know how long it takes to here from them after you interview. I made it through the whole interview and have not heard anything yet. Thanx

 

[MarineGrunt]

It took them an hour to call me back. Most people are getting called the same day. Hopefully things work out.....

 

[Lear70]

Commuting is what you make of it. I don't get the guys/gals who live in FL, GA, TX, TN, SC, NC and constantly bitch about the commute to DTW when the one to MEM is easier (much easier). Just like the handful of peep's who live on the west coast and commute to DTW when MSP is easier.

That's why I finally bid down to MEM. My QOL increased TREMENDOUSLY, even though I could only hold 12 days off after 4 1/2 years at PCL as a CA (2 less than DTW on average), it was almost ALWAYS commutable. So instead of getting 14 days off in DTW and spending 4-6 days off in a hotel or crashpad, I got 12 days off commutable and burnt ZERO days off in a hotel or crashpad in a year's time.

DTW was commutable for the first 3 1/2 years I was there, and I missed flying there to tell the truth, but you gotta do what you gotta do and PCL Management is NOT in the business of making their crews happy. They're in the business of minimizing delays and cancellations and cashing that big fat check that comes in from NWA every month which is based on completion factor and staying within a certain limit of D-zero and D-15.

That's just life. Not ALL companies will run over their employees to stretch a dollar, but Northwest does.

Make the commute easier and your QOL may increase, keep it difficult and what else do you expect? Live somewhere difficlut to commute from and that is the price you have to pay, it is no different if you work for PNCL, any other regional, LCC or major.

That's very true. I'd love to live in a coastal city, but the commute's a b*tch...

For what it's worth, MEM show times are very rarely prior to 0800 and 95% of the first bank of flights arrive between 0700 - 0815 so you can always make your show (disregarding the commuter clause). Almost all of the trips finish between 1800 and 1900 as well, and the 3rd bank starts leaving at 1930. THAT is why MEM is commutable if you live in the Central time zone. The bank system there creates this, NOT the company, but that WILL change if the 4th bank ever comes back.

DTW? Fuhgedaboudit. Especially if you live more than an hour away and are coming from the Central time zone. The bank system there isn't designed to connect people perfectly, but rather stagger 1/4 to 1/3 of the arrivals into spending 2-3 hours before the next bank leaves (or gives you a 25 minute connection time which usually won't work). Therefore, commuting is more difficult.

MSP? Hit and miss. It's in the Central time zone, but again, unless you live within an hour's flight time, you're usually not going to make your show time. The guys commuting from the Mountain or Pacific time zones find it the most commutable, but lines aren't quite as good as DTW most of the time.

NONE of these take into account leaving 2 comute attempts. If you do it "by the book", you're going to have to come in the night before 99% of the time.

I was, as BOHICA did as well, dropping turns ONCE every month or two to make things commutable but, as a CA that's pretty much hit-and-miss, and if the staffing tightens up on both sides of the house, you can kiss that ability goodbye. Don't plan on dropping turns and trips to make your life commutable, it may not be the case in the future.

P.S. Congrats, Grunt, on the class date! Like I said before, Pinnacle is known as a good place to be FROM, and you WILL enjoy your coworkers and your trips, it's the stuff on the ground that will piss you off, so if you can ignore that and just have a good time flying, you'll have an enjoyable PCL career!

Good luck to everyone else trying to get in (and out) of PCL!

 

[Cokie907]

Cokie907...

C'mon.. you were the guy commuting back and forth on PM reserve:laugh:.

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Ahhhh yes, the good ole days. Sometimes I'll go down to the old crew lounge, sit there in the dark and relive the days of airport reserve.

Thanks for a robust laugh, I almost spit coffee out of my nose there for a second!