Street CA

[Spoolup]

Is it true that pinnacle airlines is/was hiring street captains to meet expansion requirements?

 

[Lear70]

Oh God... here we go again.

WAS... Big, all-caps, as in ancient history. We took delivery of our last aircraft last month. Odds are we ain't gettin' no more 'til contract talks are done. We are coming up on 6 months without a contract and anticipate another 2 years or so before we're even close.

Do a search here under "Northwest Whipsaw", include the words Pinnacle or Mesaba and you'll get to hear all you want about how the carrot and the stick rules airline negotiations these days.

My strike fund is almost $10,000 now. Hope everyone else is saving up!

 

[arthompson]

Since I've been here they hired all new hires as FO's and then opened up the bids for capatains, some got it as new hires, some didn't.

 

[Lear70]

Since I've been here they hired all new hires as FO's and then opened up the bids for capatains, some got it as new hires, some didn't.

You must be a FNG, 'cause we were hiring street captains as recently as this time last year... about 50 or so of them, and about 50 more back just before 9/11.

They did it from time to time when they didn't have warm bodies that met the minimums. Now they do, plus not very many seats to upgrade into = no more street captains for a LONG while... like half a decade, unless something VERY strange happens and they start sending us handfulls of new planes again.

 

[arthompson]

I never said that we never hired them or that we didn't have them. Long before I came to work at 9E I met several Street Captains, what I said was that after I came to work here it became an all FO newhire class and then the new hires were allowed to bid for CA slots. I had a couple of roommates that got there upgrades while in ground school.

 

[Lear70]

You need to clarify your posts; someone with no history of Pinnacle is looking for information and since your seniority date isn't posted, they might assume any number of possibilities on your company longevity (new hire all the way to senior Captain).

However, I don't believe you're a pilot here; if memory serves, you're a crew scheduler who's been here 7 or 8 months.

 

[Le Douche]

Street captains? Where do I apply?

 

[arthompson]

First of all I never claimed to be a pilot here. Only an idiot would think I was considering that says on each post that my aircraft experiance is a C172 and I currently hold no ratings. With that said, not being a pilot doesn't mean that I don't know what goes on in this company and how things are being done. I posted what I posted from first hand knowledge, I have had several people in my crashpad that were Street CA's, they were all hired as FO's and got the upgrade in New Hire.

Yes I am a scheduler. Again that doesn't mean that I know less or more than you do. One should never makes assumptions about what someone knows based off there position and seniority.

 

[Lear70]

First of all I never claimed to be a pilot here. Only an idiot would think I was considering that says on each post that my aircraft experiance is a C172 and I currently hold no ratings.

Au contraire mon frer. Half the people here on Flightinfo don't post anything on their profile or post just the aircraft they fly on their spare time. You can't rely on what may or may not be on someone's profile to determine their "level of experiEnce, that would be... how you say... IDIOTIC.

With that said, not being a pilot doesn't mean that I don't know what goes on in this company and how things are being done. I posted what I posted from first hand knowledge, I have had several people in my crashpad that were Street CA's, they were all hired as FO's and got the upgrade in New Hire.

NO ONE down on Nonconnah knows what's going on with this company, otherwise we wouldn't have the SNAFU's on the line that we have every single month. How many unconvered trips over interface? Yeah, that's what I thought. You know your piece of the pie, I know mine, and although the people in your crashpad had the "F/O to Capt in class" experience, just prior to you coming here they were hiring Captains off the street.

Yes I am a scheduler. Again that doesn't mean that I know less or more than you do. One should never makes assumptions about what someone knows based off there position and seniority.

Most certainly it means you know less than I do about the makeup of PAST PRACTICE; it's not an affront to you or an attack, but purely a function of how long I've been here, just as I know less than the top 10% of the seniority list that's been here a decade or more. You not CLARIFYING your first statement of "Since I've been here..." followed by a definite statement, belies the truth that you've been here less than a year. People read a LOT into these message boards that's not actually there, especially when they're new to Flightinfo and your "tone" implies some level of authority, and not a "I've only been here 8 months, but since then..." Make sense?

As far as making assumptions about what someone knows based off THEIR position and seniority, ummm... that's why people come to Flightinfo with questions in the FIRST place. Many posters may put information on here, it's up to the individual reading the post to place how much value that information has based on what the poster's background is.

Welcome to Flightinfo.

 

[RP170]

Street captains? Where do I apply?

Blow Jet

 

[arthompson]

I apologize for not having been clear in my post. I didn't mean to inply any level of authority, I simply stated the facts as I know them. Also when you talk about the uncovered trips at interface you should consider the shear number of sick calls that we get. Plus the number of guys that just don't want to fly even though they came here knowing they were working for an airline.

Again as far as the hiring captains off the street I apologize for having not been clear in my statement. I should have started with "since I started in...."

 

[Lear70]

No reason to apologize man, I'm sorry if I came across that way, just wanted to get the idea across that most people read a LOT into posts, sometimes more than the poster ever intended to say.

As far as staffing goes, I know it's not the fault of Crew Sked, just as I KNOW it's not the fault of the pilots calling in sick. Our sick ratio is HALF the industry norm; do some research on the Dept of Labor website, you'll find we call in sick MUCH less than the industry average OR the national average.

Although MANGEMENT trains you guys to think we're all lazy S.O.B.'s, take a look at how many pilots are PICKING UP as much open time as they're legal for and you'll realize that management is lying to YOU just as much as they are lying to US.

The REAL cause of all the uncovered trips is the STAFFING LEVEL that MANAGEMENT came up with to run this airline. NO OTHER AIRLINE IN THE D*MN WORLD STAFFS THIS LOW! Phil won a freakin' AWARD for being the "most efficient" operator of CRJ's in the WORLD. Everyone else staffs at 5 crews per aircraft, we staff at 4. In plain English, we staff a full 20% LOWER than ANY OTHER AIRLINE !!! How come other airlines don't do that? Answer: they don't agree with our management on staffing.

Only our management team thinks that is acceptable; we don't because it puts the onus of making this company work solely on the pilot group. One senior manager was QUOTED at a pilot meeting saying that "We don't fully utilize Junior Assignments and Extensions; we really need to concentrate on using those better". In other words, "We don't care about our pilot's days off, we just want to save money on staffing".

There's a reason pilots hate getting Junior Assigned and Extended. It's called we have families, we have prior commitments, and only want to work on our SCHEDULED days on, and be left alone on our days off. That's how a REAL airline is run. No offense to you at all, just stating the facts of the industry.

 

[DoinTime]

I apologize for not having been clear in my post. I didn't mean to inply any level of authority, I simply stated the facts as I know them. Also when you talk about the uncovered trips at interface you should consider the shear number of sick calls that we get. Plus the number of guys that just don't want to fly even though they came here knowing they were working for an airline.

I see management brainwashing is alive as ever. Until you've been on the other side of the phone you'll probably never understand the Pinnacle pilot groups distaste for our crew scheduling department. This company should be happy that they employ the MOST PRODUCTIVE PILOT GROUP IN THE COUNTRY. That is irrefutable fact.

Your characterization of our pilot group being lazy couldn't be more off the mark. Once you have some experience on either side of the phone maybe you will realize this.

 

[Rook]

Good Posts DT and Lear 70. If I don't want to work on my DAY OFF that doesn't make me lazy. Those of us that have been here a while (DT and L70)feel that our time off (what little we have thanks to JM's and Ext's)is well deserved.

 

[arthompson]

I never said that all the pilots didn't want to fly and I sure as hell didn't call the PILOT GROUP Lazy. I said I have had experiance with some. There is a *BIG* difference between not wanting to fly an extention, not wanting to pick up open time and not wanting to fly what you are allready scheduled. I also *HATE* junior manning people. I would rather extend (at least you're allready working) or better yet try to get someone to pick up the trip.

No I'm not a pilot, but many of my friends are at various carriers. I know what you guys go thru. There aren't alot of guys on the line that have any clue what goes on in Skd on a daily basis. I think we (like several other carriers) should send our schedulers on FAM rides so new hire schedulers can see the crews in a daily "routine", I also think that New Hires should have to come spend a day in scheduling and see what really happens.

 

[Markm1811]

Ahhhhh

I love the warm and fuzzy feeling in our company.. Makes me want to call in sick too... Try DX'ing at double the industry rate......

Midnight Brit
Coming to your ACAR's 4 times a week.

 

[Napoleon TNT]

I also *HATE* junior manning people. I would rather extend (at least you're allready working) or better yet try to get someone to pick up the trip.

-I have a buddy at PNCL...he had 8 days off in June (after junior manning). Not good.

-This past May, he was ACARS'd a messege (while in cruise) that he was being "No-Show'd" for his next flight. Think about that one.

How does that happen, Crew Scheduler?

 

[arthompson]

You tell me and we'll both know. If I had to guess though I would say that he was probably reserve and refused to return a call from the company about a schedule change. With that said I find it amazing that everyone on this board "has a buddy at PCL" and knows so much about what happens at this company because there buddy works here.

The condecending <sp?> tone only works if I can pull your employee number up in the system.

 

[Ty Webb]

Everyone else staffs at 5 crews per aircraft, we staff at 4. In plain English, we staff a full 20% LOWER than ANY OTHER AIRLINE !!!

Actually, at my LCC (AirTran) we have 12 pilots on the list for each aircraft (6 crews). Of course, that includes Management pilots, LOA, MIL leave, in training, etc, but still at least 11 pilots per plane, and that's a LCC!

 

[Napoleon TNT]

If I had to guess though I would say that he was probably reserve and refused to return a call from the company about a schedule change.

He was on reserve, but the flight he was being ACARS'd for was to leave in 5 minutes

...I find it amazing that everyone on this board "has a buddy at PCL" and knows so much about what happens at this company because there buddy works here.

When you have over 1,200 pilots, there is a good chance that many people know a few at PNCL. The aviation world is very small.