Regional Benefit Comparison

[NavinRJohnson]

I've got a pretty good feel for what the pay would be like at the respective regionals, I'd like to poll about the other things that come along with the job.

How are your medical/dental benefits?

401K Match?

Travel?

Work rules?

Other benefits that are noteworthy?

Thought it might me interesting to compare. Thanks in advance...

 

[aviatrix]

They all suck!!! Good luck!! (hey, that rhymes!)

 

[NavinRJohnson]

Wow. That bad. Only one reply and not exactly a gushing review.

Oh well. Guess I'll keep a reserve job in my back pocket...

 

[FlamingFUPA]

good idea

 

[Well-hung Start]

The best regional is...

Work for ANY DCI-lifter. Even Sh'talker.

Because you can say you're a Delta pilot!

 

[BluDevAv8r]

I've got a pretty good feel for what the pay would be like at the respective regionals, I'd like to poll about the other things that come along with the job.

I commend you for thinking beyond simply the pay tables. Many pilots don't do that...and that line of thinking is short-sighted.

The answers below apply to ExpressJet Airlines dba Continental Express.

How are your medical/dental benefits?

I'm single and I pay $60/month for an EPPO plan. I'm not sure what family coverage costs but our coverage is pretty good compared to what else is out there.

401K Match?

For years 1-5 at the company, 100% match up to 4%, plus an additional 2.5% for free. So basically, you put in 4% of your salary and the company kicks in an additional 6.5%.

For years 6-10, 100% match up to 5%, plus an additional 4%. So if you put in 5%, you get 9% from the company on top of that 5% of your own money. Putting in more than 5% won't garner any more money from the company...just your own funds towards the ERISA/IRS limits.

Travel?

We get treated (for now) just like Continental employees. Travel costs $12.50 one way domestic (forgot what international is) plus a certain amount of free vacation passes. Boarding priority is based on date of hire, regardless of CAL or XJT.

Work rules?

Incredible vacation provision (trips in conflict with vacation drop off and you are pay protected to 75 hour guarantee)...which results in a string of 17-24 days off if you bid properly. Reserve rules are good as well...including a long call provision. 12 days off minimum for lineholders (and 12 for reserves in 5 months of the year...11 otherwise).

Very good trip trading provisions...90% of trip trading is done online without scheduling's intervention.

Other benefits that are noteworthy?

Solid scope protection on the holding company.

Pay protection on a segment by segment basis...produces significant "soft time" = more money.

Let me know if you have more specific questions.

-Neal

 

[ClearRight]

SkyWest Benefits:

401(k) match:
1-4 years, 2% Dollar-for-Dollar Match
5-9 years, 4% Dollar-for-Dollar Match
10 years (and above), 6% Dollar-for-Dollar Match

Medical:
Too many options to list all the details here.
National PPO is with United Healthcare. They also have a iPlan HSA something-or-other. Utah can use Intermountain Health Care. California and Colorado can use Pacificare. There's a Kaiser plan available, too.
For me and my family of five: UHC National PPO, $240/month.

Dental:
Delta Dental, $27/month family plan.

Employee Stock Purchase Program:
The 423 Employee Stock Purchase Plan allows you to purchase SkyWest, Inc. common stock through payroll deductions at a discounted price. Through this plan, you can elect to have a set amount of after-tax dollars deducted from each paycheck. These dollars accumulate over a six-month period and are then used to purchase shares of SkyWest, Inc. common stock. In addition, you receive a 15% discount from the market price on the purchase of these shares (the lowest market price on either the 31st of Dec. or 30th of June).

Stock Options:
From time-to-time, the SkyWest Board of Directors may authorize the granting of Stock Options to employees. For the most recent authorization, Stock Options were granted to employees with three or more years of service at SkyWest. The number of shares granted to employees was determined by a formula weighted 80% on earnings and 20% on longevity.

Quarterly Performance Rewards:
All full-time, part-time / line share employees who have completed two years of service by the last day of the quarter are eligible for the Financial Performance Reward.
Employee quarterly gross earnings X SkyWest net margin = Financial Performance Reward

Travel:
For pilots, free travel on Delta and all Skywest. Mileage-based reduced fare on United. As with many other airlines, the interline discounts on other airlines are great. Examples are $30 each way on Alaska, $25 on Southwest. Many other airlines have a zone-based fare schedule. I've never used them so don't know what they are...

Vacation:
It's a per hour paid accrual rate.
After six months .0385 per hour
After five years .0462 per hour
After ten years .0577 per hour
After fifteen years .0615 per hour
After sixteen years .0654 per hour
After seventeen years .0692 per hour
After eighteen years .0731 per hour
After nineteen years .0769 per hour
--It seems kind of confusing, but it's a great system in that you know exactly how may hours of vacation you have. If you bid your line correctly, you can get a couple weeks off with only using one weeks worth of vacation...

 

[h25b]

COEX actually has pretty darn good 401K match. Good going fellas ! Whoever asked is wise beyond their years. I recently learned the hard way how important an excellent healthcare plan is. Last employer's were horrible and I really got hosed with some of my wife's medical expenses.

Word of advice from a "been there, done that guy." Before accepting ANY offer of employment ask to see their employee benefits handbook WITH the out-of-paycheck costs to employees. If they won't/don't give you this information RUN AWAY !!! If they have a good benefits package chances are that they will probably include this information with the job offer. If they don't, ask to see it and chances are it stinks. Employers with good benefits are proud of it and will be very forthcoming.

 

[bugchaser]

Yeah, you never really appreciate the medical benies until you need them. As was stated above, XJT has several excellent options on the health insurance side. Much better than anywhere I have ever worked. In or out of aviation. So many people get caught up in the payscales and never consider how much all these things are worth. I think that our total benefit package here is excellent.

 

[CE402]

Cape Air =


http://www.flycapeairjobs.com/benefits.html

 

[millhouse21]

I've got a pretty good feel for what the pay would be like at the respective regionals, I'd like to poll about the other things that come along with the job.

How are your medical/dental benefits?

401K Match?

Travel?

Work rules?

Other benefits that are noteworthy?

Thought it might me interesting to compare. Thanks in advance...

At Trans States:

Medical. I'm single and it costs about $100 per month and dental is like $20.

401K: 1% match after 1 year. Oh, they take that 1% back with fees.

Travel: Depends on base. Usair bennies are free travel. United is a mileage based deal and I guess American is a zone thing. You only get benefits if you actually fly for that major so if you're RIC based, no american bennies. If you are in the 41, no United or (soon) USair bennies.

Work rules: 95% line guarantee, block or better on a leg by leg basis. Other than that, they suck. my roomate is doing a 3 day trip right now with 4 hours of pay credit. I believe his perdiem will be more than his flight pay.

I would only come to Trans States right now if nobody else would hire me. Then, I would get some 121 time and move on.

 

[E170Guppykiller]

Work for ANY DCI-lifter. Even Sh'talker.

Because you can say you're a Delta pilot!

I go around telling people that I fly for UNITED express (the express in a hushed tone).

 

[DrewBlows]

I go around telling people that I fly for UNITED express (the express in a hushed tone).

E170Guppykiller...


...wasting bandwidth, one post at a time.

 

[viper548]

I go around telling people that I fly for UNITED express (the express in a hushed tone).

And people believe you too. It's a well known fact that there are a lot of "male" f/a's at united.

 

[BluDevAv8r]

I also left out that at XJT:

We have a profit sharing program based on 10% of the pre-tax net income of the company. Was 8.6% of an employee's W-2 last year...this year is obviously undetermined but my guess is that it will be lower due to our lower operating margin guarantee with CAL.

Dental costs were rolled up in my $60/month for medical line above...so $60/month for me as a single person gets me medical and dental as well as some other minor things that I can go into if someone wants me to.

Vacation is 2 weeks for years 1-6 and 3 weeks for 7th year...and 4 weeks is available as well...for the super senior dudes.

-Neal

 

[NavinRJohnson]

Keep it coming...

Great info all. Thanks!

Anyone out there from ASA, Eagle, Horizon?

 

[Sinca3]

ASA soon to be Skywest (obviously all of this is subject to change very soon):
Medical/Dental-$35 mnth for single
Travel- Best in the industry...Free unlimited domestic pay taxes on international etc etc
Work rules leave a bit to be desired although not too bad:
10 days off a mnth min for all, 75hr guar., any underblock flown goes on top of your guar. (good for CDO and Resv. lines) We have a long call resv. (12 hrs) for line holders who's trip is taken for training.
That's all of the top of my head right now.....for a 7 yr contract things could be worse!

 

[RichO]

So, how about Mesa, just in case Comair is bought.....argg

is benefit even in the vocabulary over there or what?

 

[schmitty340]

I work for mesaba and am currently out because I had back and knee surgery last month. I am enrolled in the middle of the three health plans available. I have been out for six weeks and have recieved 75 hours pay each month through our, company paid for, short term dissablity plan. I have a friend at comair that was out for about the same period and recieved nothing because he was not in their short term plan. the reason is he would have had to pay extra out of his check to enrole.(not included)

My surgerys have cost about 25 thousand so far. After paying 10% of my bills up to the max. ( $900.00) the health benifits have covered every thing else.

we also have decent dental.

Our vision sucks ass, not worth enroling into,

but the short and long term plans really help out when you have to go out. Our short term dis kicks in after only three sick days. so even though our sick time accruel rate is poor. the std ( not herpes ) makes up for that.

I could look up the 401k stuff, but I'm lazy. I think it is about average..

Schmitty

 

[blackbox]

How long after you get hired does the medical benefits kick in at skywest?