JohnBurke

"Government rate" is a nebulous term; it means something different at each hotel or chain. Often the government rate is higher than other rates. Government rate does not mean free breakfast; government per diem and daily expenses are talied separately, but the hotel may or may not elect to include a breakfast.

AgCat

Couple a weeks I guess for the offer. First via email then a confirmation call.

I was told that the gov rate is $163/night. The additional cost was due to the breakfast provided. That's what they told me, I didn't suppose that. Normal advertised rate is $128 and that probably includes breakfast too. We all stood at the front desk and had a good laugh about the "gov rate". We'll all be laughing all the way to the poor house.

JohnBurke

The GSA breakdown for the denver area is 163 for lodging, and 66.00 for meals/expenses. This has nothing to do with the "government rate" that hotels give government employees. While a hotel could theoretically look it up and match that value, most don't; in most places the government rate is different than the GSA allowance.

Per Diem Rates Look-Up

At a hotel you might ask for the AAA rate, the rate for truckers, the government rate, etc; these values go up and down, and don't necessarily coincide with the GSA table. It's fairly well known that when looking for the lower rate, a trucker or AAA will do better than the government rate. When there's a lot of government activity and hotel room availability decreases, the government rate often skyrockets. Last year I paid 38 one night at a hotel, and the next night they wanted 225. We got squeezed, along with everyone else. The problem for me was that anything above my per diem value, which was 125, came out of pocket. I went to a different hotel.

There is nothing in the GSA table which prescribes additional costs for breakfast, or that a breakfast should be included.

Meals and Incidental Expenses ( M&IE) Breakdown

If you check the meals and incidentals breakdown for the 66 dollar rate (applicable to Denver), you'll see that the value allowed for breakfast is 11.00. Again, the hotel can charge whatever it likes, as the government does not mandate that any hotel charge a specific value. The GSA tables are what the government allows for it's employees in a specific location. The term "government rate" used by hotels is just another rate, just like AAA, AOPA, AARP, commercial driver, etc. It's whatever the hotel decides it will be, and if the patron doesn't like it, he or she is free to go elsewhere.

The hotel told you what their rate is, but the hotel is not the government and doesn't speak for the government.

dc10pilot

this thread has nothing do with gov rates at hotels on to other Omni news please

Packrat

AgCat,

Check your PMs

AgCat

JohnBurke,
Thanks for the education. I live in California so I'm suspect of anything Government when it seems like I, the tax payer is getting screwed.

Sorry I took this off the Omni hiring topic. Consider it back on topic.
Omni assigns lots of pre-study prior to indoc and grd school. I've been going through the 767 systems as assigned. Man....Boeing builds the best airliners and this review only reminded me of that! Ha! "If it ain't a Boeing......"

AgCat

Sorry to the guys who have sent me private messages regarding the Omni topic. I just realized that I had messages to read.

lifshr66

Hello OAI pilots/candidates,

Can someone affirm (or dismiss) the following:
1. New contract's schedule is 7 on 7 off in stead of the prev 18 on? And if so - is it already in effect?
2. OAI pilots are offered travel benfits on United? (real travel benefits, not just ID90/Zed fare), and if so - what's the boarding priority (SA-...?)
3. Is OAI hiring at the moment? (nothing on their website career opennings...)

Thanks!!

KhalReblic23

1. Where did you hear that contract stuff? First off, our contract is expiring in dec and we haven't even started negotiations. Second, no it's 18 straight and you could potentially do 36 straight if you get a **** bid that goes back to back on two months. (There are some split up lines sometimes but they're not straight forward like 7/7...it'll be like 3/15 or 10/8 or 2/16 etc). Theoretically you could even get a 90 day line (they call it a TDY but you have to check out of your hotel room every trip so you don't actually have a home for those 90 days) if they feel like running those.

2. I used to have real UAL benifits (well CAL anyway) at my previous carrier. The Omni SA rank puts you somewhere akin to the Janitor at Skywest (sorry I don't remember the designation off the top of my head). I've been here 5 years and never found a use for them. Jumpseat will be about all you realistically get. We have one civilian scheduled regular route from LAS-HNL that always (90% of the time) has open seats and we don't even get privileges/passes to take spouse or family on that flight and it's our own airline!

3. Someone submitting your stuff internally is really the only way to get hired for most.

Anything else? Feel free to ask.

Not to burst your bubble but we are actually dealing with hotel issues union side now where the company is attempting to negotiate lower rates by getting us removed from the breakfast at places where it's already free (i.e. Holiday Inn/Hampton/La Quinta style free breakfast buffet in the lobby places).

Many of the places we used to get breakfast vouchers or discounts have already seen those benefits slashed or completely revoked.

I should start an image board of our "catering"...they recently removed the cheese from our microwave cheeseburgers...so now they're just burgers...I guess I'm just whining now haha

lifshr66

[QUOTE=KhalReblic23;1892274]1. Where did you hear that contract stuff? First off, our contract is expiring in dec and we haven't even started negotiations. Second, no it's 18 straight and you could potentially do 36 straight if you get a **** bid that goes back to back on two months. (There are some split up lines sometimes but they're not straight forward like 7/7...it'll be like 3/15 or 10/8 or 2/16 etc). Theoretically you could even get a 90 day line (they call it a TDY but you have to check out of your hotel room every trip so you don't actually have a home for those 90 days) if they feel like running those.

2. I used to have real UAL benifits (well CAL anyway) at my previous carrier. The Omni SA rank puts you somewhere akin to the Janitor at Skywest (sorry I don't remember the designation off the top of my head). I've been here 5 years and never found a use for them. Jumpseat will be about all you realistically get. We have one civilian scheduled regular route from LAS-HNL that always (90% of the time) has open seats and we don't even get privileges/passes to take spouse or family on that flight and it's our own airline!

3. Someone submitting your stuff internally is really the only way to get hired for most.

Anything else? Feel free to ask.


===> Thanks for clarifying things out.. I suspect the misinformation I received was too good to be true :-(