Before you make the decision to accept a class date with Omni, I would consider this…. Sure it would be nice flying heavy equipment across the pond, experiencing different cultures. Don’t get me wrong Omni can be a great place to work, however we are entering contract negotiations. As of right now it looks like it’s going to be a long drawn out process.
First off, we don’t fly that much to begin with. Its feast or famine here, so if you're looking to build heavy time it will take a long time. At times there can be a lot of commercial travel around to get to the airplane. Our contract has language regarding commercial travel. I would like to point out one interpretation that the company has. Our contract states that WHEN available an economy window or aisle will be purchased for international travel at the TIME OF BOOKING. The pilot group has noticed that the company will purchase a ticket but your seat won’t be assigned, or you’re in a middle seat. Your name is now put into the magical SEAT QUE. There may be a window or aisle economy seat available; it comes with a higher price tag. The company chooses to put your name into a QUE to see if they can grab your contracted window or aisle seat at the lower rate. When you call the company in particular travel, they offer no help. Some of the time they will move your seat even if it costs them more, and thank you for pointing that out. Other times they will tell you that you are in the Que. They also use an excuse and say that the airline hasn’t released available seats. It seems like a never ending battle. Bottom line is the company wants to save money, they are hoping that the pilot group just takes the middle seat for their 15 hour flight and doesn’t say anything. The contract states that if an economy window or aisle seat is available, at the time of booking, travel needs to purchase it no matter what the cost.
Second, grievances and our current representation from our Union. At Omni, we have a descent amount of grievances open. It appears that none of these have been taken care of. Most of the open grievances deal with the mentioned above middle seat on an international flight. How can we make life better for the pilots if our own Union is not even addressing the grievances. The Teamsters 1224 need to step up for the pilots and address these issues. Otherwise the company is going to continue to operate the same way. Understand that when the flight is full, they have no choice to put you in that middle seat to get you to where you need to go. Most of the flight where I was booked a middle seat, there were economy window or aisle seats available, it just had a higher price tag.