Originally Posted by
followingdreams
Nope, however it is my understanding the limited the bases to 9 becasue they used their own aircraft to ferry their pilots around. Anyone outside those 9 bases were told to rent a car (on the company) and drive to one of those bases. If you could not get to one of those bases, they paid you for 10 (or 12) days a month to sit home. Sounds pretty fair, obviously not as good as running business as normal, but SIGNIFICANTLEY better than others.
To make the pay schedules equal you would need to add 1 bonus day to the Flex figures per month which would add $9,200 to the flex figure. Granted I am not a Union guy but if your pay is 20% below Flexjet, what has the Union done for you? To each their own, I am not saying FLEX is the best for everyone, if you feel Unions are a benefit, then go to NJ. Retirement is ONLY better becasue they are REQUIRED to put the a portion of the FDP directly into the retirement. Pay at the end of your career is better at NJ however how much money are you goingt to lose by not upgrading in 8 months and waiting 7 years. In my mind it’s Delta, United argument, Coors Lite or Bud Lite, Honda or Toyota, to each their own but to say catagorically NJ is a better place to work is just false.
If you asked the guys that were renting cars and driving to those bases I think you would hear that they got real tired of that real quick. Driving home from those places late at night after long duty days didn’t sit well with the flex guys I talked to. Sure the company would get them a hotel but then they were driving home on their day off. Also ask the guys what they had to give up to pay for project lift? Bonuses maybe. I have yet to talk to anyone who got paid to sit at home for 10-12 days through Covid, maybe at the beginning.
If you really believe that Netjets pay is 20% below flexjet why would people leave flexjet to come to Netjets but not the reverse? Like you said upgrade is so much quicker at flex. Upgrade is down below 5 years at NJ now and should drop to 2 1/2 - 3 years in the next couple months. Have you asked yourself why the upgrade time is so low at flex? Is it because you are growing so fast or because of attrition? My guess is people come there to get the TPIC and go somewhere else. Completely valid reason.
The “REQUIRED” retirement contribution you talk about is a union bargained benefit. Something I hear flex pilots have been trying to get. How is that going?
As far as the $100k first year pay at flex I think you will be hard pressed to find a first year guy at Netjets that made less than $100k. The problem is we have so many ways to make soft money that are not guaranteed. The difference between fleets fdp is something we are hoping to rectify.
Not sure I ever said Netjets is categorically better. Just trying to make sure accurate info is put out.