Hopefully this won't turn into some sort of flame-fest (that's the reason I'm posting this here instead of FI.com). When I started at my first airline (American Eagle) I didn't know too much about work rules, etc. And for that matter, I had no idea of what questions to ask when I was interviewing.
A while back a friend of mine called to tell me that he had accepted a position at an airline which will remain nameless, but has a reputation for some really crappy work rules. While I was trying to be enthusiastic and happy for him, I asked him if he knew anything about compensation, days off, etc. He said no and I finally got around to asking him why he decided to work there. He said, "They called me back". Anyway, I'm glad that he got the job, but I felt that he was seriously under-informed and may have made a better decision if he had more information available to him.
That's why I decided to create this thread. I am putting this information out solely for comparison purposes and without bias towards or against SkyWest. I'd like to see other people at different airlines add their information too (or other SkyWest people to add things that I may have gotten wrong or left out).
I would also like to add that compensation is only one part of the puzzle, but I figure that the more information that is available, the more informed a new pilot can be about which company best fits his/her situation. Please don't turn this into a "Your company sucks/ALPA rules/sucks" thread...
SkyWest Airlines
Payscales:
http://airlinepilotcentral.com/airli...c/skywest.html
RJ rates increase by 1% as of 1/1/07
RJ Monthly guarantee: 75 hours
RJ Reserve guarantee: 75 hours
EMB120 line guarantee: 80 hours
EMB120 reserve guarantee: 75 hours
Per Diem Rate: $1.60
Compensation:
Paid the greater of:
- Scheduled historical block time
- Actual block time flown
- 2:1 duty pay (based on scheduled duty time)
- Min daily guarantee of 3:45 (Except on CDOs)
Plus 1:1 pay for all
scheduled duty over 12 hours
100% cancelation pay
100% deadhead pay
5% (2007) "BHO-Block Hour Override" pay for legs scheduled/flown on the CR7/CR9
BHO increases 1% every year until 2010
New Hires:- Double Occupancy Hotel
- Uniforms Supplied
- Jepps Supplied
- Pay during training (can't remember the # of hours, anyone?)
- Once aircraft training is complete, you begin receiving monthly gty. until the end of IOE
- No per diem (except on IOE flights)
Paid Holidays (Paid at 4:18 credit, after 90 days of service)
- New Year’s Day
- Memorial Day
- Fourth of July
- Labor Day
- Thanksgiving Day
- Christmas Day
User Time Accrual Rate (User time can be used for sick days, personal days, etc.)
- After ninety days .0193 per hour
- After two years .027 per hour
- After five years .0385 per hour
Vacation Accrual Rate- After six months .0385 per hour
- After five years .0462 per hour
- After ten years .0577 per hour
- After fifteen years .0615 per hour
- After sixteen years .0654 per hour
- After seventeen years .0692 per hour
- After eighteen years .0731 per hour
- After nineteen years .0769 per hour
Uniforms:
$150/year uniform allowance
Benefits:
Various health plans - PPO,HMO,High Deductible (after 90 days)
Available plans depend on location and level of coverage ($20.50-$151.58/pay period)
Employee Assistance Plan (free)
The Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is designed to help you and your family deal with personal difficulties. The EAP is a professional, confidential counseling service provided through Intermountain Health Care (IHC). The EAP will determine whether they will manage your care directly or if you will be referred to a provider in your area. Your consultations will be kept confidential.
Dental (after 90 days) $4.78-$13.41/pay period
Vision (available to new hires immediately)
($2.77-$7.38/pay period)
Flexible Spending Accounts
Disability
Short-term ($3.99-$11.95/pay period)
Long-term (paid by SkyWest)
Life Insurance (free after 90 days)
$20,000 coverage for employee, $5,000 for spouse, and $2,500 for dependents
$20,000 AD&D for employee
Legal and Financial Planing Services (after 90 days)
($8.62/pay period)
401k Matching
1-4 yrs service (2%)
5-9 yrs service (4%)
10+ yrs service (6%)
Employee Stock Purchase
The Employee Stock Purchase Plan allows you to purchase SkyWest, Inc. common stock through a payroll deduction at a discounted price. Choose the amount of after-tax dollars deducted from each paycheck. These dollars accumulate over a six-month period and are then used to purchase SkyWest stock at a 15 percent discount from the market price, based on a six-month look back.
Education Savings (available after 90 days)
SkyWest offers a program to assist you in saving for educational costs for you, your children or grandchildren. This plan is a flexible, tax-advantaged 529 college savings plan managed by Alliance Capital. This plan allows you to save through payroll deductions on an after-tax basis for college expenses.
Other Stuff:
No involuntary junior manning
Open time can be picked up at JM pay (150%) as long as the trip starts in the next 10 days. Crew support has the option to deny your request to pick up the open time, but they have to assign it to a reserve right away. If you pick up open time outside of the 10 day window it is straight pay.
Schedules are constructed using a preferential bidding system (PBS). Some like it, some don't. The trick is learning how to use it properly. I screwed up for January and now I only have 11 days off. Boo. Personally, I like it better than the hard lines because it's easier to get a couple specific days off without having to limit your options severely. PBS will build a schedule with no more than 20 duty days in a month, i.e. (10-11 days guaranteed off depending on whether it's a 30 or 31 day bid period).
Automated trip trades and picking up of dropped trips of other crew members and open time via company web site.
Excellent company web site. I can't even begin to tell you how much better I like it compared to SABRE (at American Eagle). Very easy to use. And we can keep an e-mail longer than one day! haha (Eagle guys know what I'm talking about)