Thread: XOJET Questions
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Old 03-12-2021, 03:35 PM
  #21  
multipilot
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Originally Posted by backcoursebob27 View Post
Anyone who applies needs to understand the current situation with vista. XO is a now a far cry from what it used to be and is headed down as fast as they can muster.

All current pilot pay is frozen, and capped at ten year pay scale. They tell us that once we achieve 3 consecutive months of 2018 flight hours and yield levels, they will give us our pay back. The general consensus is that they are using the plandemic to get concessions until our current MOU is up, then put everyone on their crappy vista pay scale.

To achieve this, they will be creating a group of scabs using a “B” pay scale which no one really knows what it is but probably the vista pay scale: 75k for FO’s, CA pay at 120 until 5 years, then 123 until ten then capped at 129. One and only one week of vacation and training on days off. Maybe someone from the vista side can confirm if they are still training on days off.

They are pushing hard to get us to go to 15/13 and once they do this many will quit opening up the door for hiring said scabs who will undoubtedly be the people with prior DUI’s and busted checkrides.

Meanwhile we are flying as much if not more than ever, with the awful uniforms. Operations is not completely useless, and our workload has increased tremendously having to check everything they do, or forget to do. You are basically on your own, and spend all day correcting ridiculous mistakes and oversights. They told us this would get better once the move happened but a year in its even worse than before.

This is not hype, or an exaggeration, just know what you are getting into, as vistas true colors are coming through. Also they have purchased two charter outfits while cutting our pay, and spent 500k/per plane to paint and refurb the 300’s. They successfully took one of the best 135 outfits to work for, and destroyed it. The culture is totally different now, and they are not really transparent and honest like they claim to be.
BackCourseBob 27 is a few dots off of his CDI. Everybody who I work with at XOJET is happy to be here and enjoys their job, so I must not have flown with BCB27.

Our management, CPO, and Round Table have done everything in their power to keep people employed during COVID, for which I am especially grateful (I've tried supporting my family on pennies before, and it's no trip to Disney Land). Our management has been on a 50% pay cut since last April or May, all while keeping pilot's paid in full throughout 2020. The pilot pay freeze started in January, and to my limited knowledge was another method of staving off furloughs. The market is slowly starting to improve and yields are trending up, so hopefully we won't be frozen long. I know for a fact that our Round Table and management are currently working to improve pilot compensation.

I haven't seen a push for 15/13. We were recently awarded our 2021-2022 schedules and 8/6 is still there. People that choose to do the 15/13 have their reasons and it works for them. If you have a young family then 8/6 might be the way to go.

I just received my new uniforms, but X guys and gals haven't had to wear them yet. If one of your biggest concerns is your pilot uniform, then you're in the wrong industry. Go be in fashion.

I haven't had as many issues with ops as BCB27 claims he has. Yes there were some growing pains with new people in FL, but I have seen quite a bit of improvement from my perspective. If I do discover a problem, and it's not super often, I call ops and get it corrected. Simple as that.

As far as new paint on airplanes, 1. some of them desperately needed it and 2.I'm not sure where BCB27 gets his info from, but my understanding is that the money for paint came from Vista Global and not XOJET. In other words, they did not dig into salary funds to pay for paint. Vista Global is investing a lot of money to grow the XO brand; paint and uniforms are part of that investment.

For what it's worth, I go to work, work hard, enjoy the people I work with, the places we go, and come home after each rotation feeling like I've done something fun and worth doing. We work hard, of course, but we play hard too. The culture is still very much alive here. COVID has certainly had an effect on the culture though, but most of us have found a way to work around it. We still go to good restaurants, have drinks, go running, hiking and workout, etc. Our CPO is awesome and they will bend over backwards for us. All of that to say, I can assure you that BCB27 does not represent 99% of the pilot group at XOJET. If BCB27 has a problem, perhaps he should look in the mirror to find the source. Keep in mind too that BCB's account was created in Nov. 2020. Whoever this person is feels the need to create a separate "nom de internet" to vent apart from their normal profile, so take that into consideration as well.

Last edited by multipilot; 03-12-2021 at 04:19 PM.
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