NowCorporate

What do I have to learn??

I'm always willing to take advice from those who are more experienced, or who may know more than I do.

ZapBrannigan

My career plan was to get a degree, flight instruct, fly freight, go to a commuter, then go to a major. Good plan right? Was working great. By the time I was 22 I had flown freight and been hired by a commuter. By 26 I was hired at a major airline. At 29 I was furloughed from a major airline.

Ok, new plan. Find a place to stay until major recalls me or I can be hired by second major.

Flew for another airline. Whoops furloughed again. Ok, third airline. Now 30 years old. Maybe I'll try corporate. Got hired by a Fortune 500 corporate.

Meanwhile, first major recalls, but they're in bankruptcy and have closed my original domicile. Going back seems risky. Stay corporate.

Corporate has management change, lays off 20% of their pilots out of seniority order with no chance for recall. Ok... Maybe should go back to the airlines at age 40.

Followed the plan. But plans are only good the day they are written. The more time passes the more variables are introduced that the plan was not written to deal with... So you improvise and do the best you can with the information you have at the time.

eman

Holy crap man that's some progression! Sorry to read about those furloughs, you got in pretty young (in my opinion).

My plan was always corporate, loved it from the start. No matter what I've done to network to date it has always come down to having a type rating and I miss out. Part 135 jet jobs give me the same hassle. Now I've gone with chasing airlines as well but I'm not too hopeful anyways and am just working on what to do when I give up in a few years...while chasing these dream jobs.

Love this type of work, but it's not paying the bills and at mid 30's I'd rather pay the bills and stash some cash away than end up **** poor on my ass if it never happens. I am **** poor at the moment but family still tolerates me and lends a helping hand with what they can.

Just like you wrote, the older we get the more we have to figure into the equation...

galaxy flyer

In the Northeast and LA plus a few other areas that's true--loads of good jobs. TEB is a gold mine.

GF

NoSidNoStar

Grum, I want to make a different approach. I want to take a leap of faith. I want to give you the benefit of the doubt, and hope you would not get a pilot fired for enforcing the contract, I want to believe I misunderstood your intentions, and confused your young energeitc flexibility with malicious brown nosing. I sincerely hope I was wrong. And if I am, my bad. My apologizes.
For the overall Karma thing, is better me being wrong than you being vicious. I can apologize if I am wrong, and I hope I am. You would not be able to fix being vicious.
(RI830 you got to be proud of me by now, thank you for the intervention earlier, sometimes are the little steps ...)
As per the hotels: Not the same hotel as the boss, but the same level of hotel. The "good for the boss good for us" is expected, if not demanded, from both us and the boss, for reasons of safety and security, especially when fly internationally; I don't think you can fully appreciate that yet, until you start flying certain geopolitical scenarios. But do keep it in mind for the future.
Our boss would not want to miss a day, because a pilot got sick sleeping on a mattress infested by bugs, or because the pilots documents got stollen from the room.
My very first corporate job was in a turboprop, and the owner always wanted me with him at the Ritz, or similar, even if I did not like staying together. I was younger and naive back then, I remember asking him to put me in a cheaper hotel and give me the difference, it was he who explained me the importance of traveling safe and secure. Time is money, and he could not waste it.
Nevertheless I did like the Ritz.
For the dinners part, I spend easily $80+ for a dinner for myself on the job, but I do spend more then that when I dine on my money, and I do eat out 3+ times a week when I don't work, so I am actually refraining myself when on the road.
I don't do chain food and I don't drink cheap wine, life is too short.
My house is paid off, and I have no kids, so I enjoy my lifestyle.
As far as the waiting in the car for the last minute allowed by the contract, as I already explained, it was for a 135 jet job.
I quit that job as soon as my training contract elapsed, and went back working as a CFI for a while, because the treatment was so bad; mine was a form of retaliation, and under the same circumstances I would do it again. It is not the only job I have quit without a better one aligned yet, but one way or the other, it always worked out fine.
By quitting that job, and not taking jobs where I can maintain my standards of living, which are high, I am contributing to keep perks in the profession, for you too. Please do the same. I understand, you want to feel like a team player, but you have to learn how do demand and respect better contracts, foster not by servile attitude but professionalism; only like that you can raise the bar for yourself and for everybody else. If another pilot needs to swap days, no problem, but if the owner is asking, he must know that can't be the norm.
You want to fly on your days off without additional recompensation? Fine. Even if I think you are doing it wrong, knock yourself out and have fun, but please don't get other pilots in trouble for saying no.
I hope I misunderstood you about that.
Grum, I am saying this from the bottom of my heart and without hostile intentions. Forgive me if I was wrong.
Let's see if 7x has another joke to make.
Before I forget, here it is

BoilerUP

I will say that jumped out at me, as it seems a bit excessive domestically for a single individual unless you are in a high-cost metro area.

I didn't hit Outback or fast food either, but the tab for two of us was typically less than $80 out the door with a solid tip and we didn't exactly eat garbage on the road. Granted we spent a lot of time in the midwest/midsouth where stuff tends to be less expensive, but our CFO would have hammered us if we routinely turned in $160+ receipts for dinner.

NowCorporate

Working for a huge company, we are, unfortunately, limited by an expense policy. $75 a day domestic for meals, up to $200 at Intl' destinations.

Its not hard to live off of $75/day, especially is you shop hotels with breakfast included etc. Like Boiler and others, I'm not eating fast food and hate places like TGI Fridays. Overseas can be a bit tighter, locale depending. When you are confined to your expensive hotel it becomes limiting.

Where people go over is alcohol...but I really don't expect my employer to pay for more than 1 or 2 drinks with dinner anyhow (if that) If you're going to booze it up, do it on your own dime.

NoSidNoStar

As a matter of fact, I do live in one of the most expensive cities in US,
especially for dining. The nature of our job brings us to other equally expensive cities, or high end international destinations.
That said, I can admit I am a compulsive diner, and I can always find an 80+ dollar dinner almost anywhere when you consider a decent bottle of wine.

NoSidNoStar

Fortunately I don't work for a company controlled by bean counters, nor we fly an operation that has to justify itself by cost/profit.
I have to add that, in my experience, if you get 2+ glasses of wine, you are better off getting a bottle. Good restaurants don't offer the same selection by the glass or by the bottles, and opened bottles are not only lower end wines, you never know when those were opened.

7Xdriver

Hmmm...a humble post...yer no fun any more