They took a survey, but the results are not released.

So anything I am going to say is just from personal experience from talking with other pilots.

1. Min day pay based on calendar day and not duty period, so we get paid something on a 30hr layover.
2. Increase to min day - right now 3:30
2. Increased sick accrual - Right now it is 3 hrs a month
3. More credit for vacation - right now it is 21 hours a week
4. Minimize increases to health care premiums. - Company proposed a large increase (rumor is 50-100%) for the family coverage.

Those are the common ones...my list includes those but with these.
1. Some better reserve rules. severely limit ready reserves to no more than 6 a month and increase pay for them.
2. Short Term Disability paid by company or shared premium.
3. Day Room for each crewmember, no room sharing (which is what we have now) on sits greater than 4 hours (it is 5 now).

 

Good stuff. Speaking of reserve for anyone who was elsewhere, is it below, the same or above your previous airlines? Like I know ExpressJet for example has only a 4 hour hot reserve whereas PSA is quite a bit longer. Is there a cap on how many RR days you can have a month and can a regular reserve day be changed to ready reserve? Also, is there any talk if increasing DH pay to 100%?

 

Schedulers are friendlier and much more inclined to help with commuting etc. as far as rules some good some bad

 

Yes, they (the negotiating) committee is working toward all of those things. The NC reviewed contracts from all (or most) regionals and identified the best parts of each contract that we wanted to include. Most of the things they are working on are QOL improvements. In today's environment large compensation increases just aren't going to happen. They have to make reasonable requests otherwise when the arbiter goes to make his decision he will go with industry average rather than the unions proposal.

 

I see. Thanks for the info!

 

I have no idea about the Compass pool but the statement I was commenting on was that pilot shortage doesn't exist because the only people being hired were former 121. Every single other airline but Endeavor are hiring CFIs. I know of CFIs with less than 1600 total going to every other regional.

 

In the short 6 year history of Compass there has been 550-600 pilots total hired. My guess is is fewer than 30 of those have come straight from the CFI ranks. We have always had ATP minimums to get hired here, and only 7 or 8 pilots have been hired not meeting those minimums but that is another story. I was at American Eagle before coming to Compass at the beginning of 2008, the contracts were similar.

 

ACessential, this the the only reason we are cheaper. Longevity is a much bigger player in total pilot costs than anyone realizes.

HAL's post was spot on. Our healthcare is industry leading in terms of premium sharing and out of pocket maximums. Our pay rates are at and in most cases above industry average for 76-seat aircraft. Save some duty and trip rigs, there's not much out there we don't have.

Blue's post on what we want is spot on as well. That's exactly what I identified on my survey. Can't imagine the committee doesn't know it, as everyone I talk to wants the same things.

I'm sorry that you're bitter from the Pinnacle debacle, but things aren't as bad here as you make them out to be. I agree with you that it is just another regional - no argument there.

Not trying to make this out to be an oasis, but its not quite the cesspool you describe.

 

Didn't mean to give the idea of Compass being a cesspool, just that there is much room for improvement (like every other regional). I do feel the pre bankruptcy contract we had at Pinnacle was better than the current Compass contract. To name a few things I liked better, min day of 4 hrs, premium pay for pick ups, long call for reserves, and the pay rates were actually better than Compass even on the 50 seaters. But that contract didn't last long anyways, apparently it was "too good" and bankrupted the company

Anyways after the whole Pinnacle debacle I'm happy to be at Compass now and feel like I'm in a better position here going forward. I wouldn't discourage anyone from coming here, its a great group of pilots and people seem much more content here than I ever experienced at Pinnacle. But like I said, its just another regional

 

Outside of first year pay, Pinnacle paid 34.72 compared to Compass 36.19 on second year. I know that it's tomato tomato, but don't say the pay rates were better.