AirBear

https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-n...tsuite-clients

This is why NetJets has an advantage due to the backing of Berkshire Hathaway. JetSuite clients ("Suitekey") could collectively lose $50M in bankruptcy. FlyExclusive is offering $150K Club Cards for $100K to those affected by the bankruptcy. Most JetSuite customers had $50K to $60K contracts.

100LL

Second hand info here but that company may be trying to do good but they dug their grave deeper recently. They switched all their pilots to mandatory 15/13 schedule from the 8/6. Long story short they always wanted to switch to that schedule in just the last year to almost two. They were afraid of a mass exodus so they didn’t do it. Thanks to covid it gave them the perfect opportunity to switch. They claim it’s to reduce airline travel save money and to minimize crew contact with other passengers for safety. They know right now most pilots can’t quit and find another job easily and they have no intention to go back to 8/6. Let the countdown begin to exodus. They already lost two guys in a few weeks. All pay raises frozen. No holiday pay no bonus pay temporarily. They will not pay back pay for those who passed their employment anniversary. Dispatch has a like/dislike list of captains (they work the disliked captains like a dog) while liked ones have a balanced workload. Again not employed by them just passing info from someone who works there.

B727DRVR

[QUOTE=100LL;3063385]Second hand info here but that company may be trying to do good but they dug their grave deeper recently. They switched all their pilots to mandatory 15/13 schedule from the 8/6. Long story short they always wanted to switch to that schedule in just the last year to almost two. They were afraid of a mass exodus so they didn’t do it. Thanks to covid it gave them the perfect opportunity to switch. They claim it’s to reduce airline travel save money and to minimize crew contact with other passengers for safety. They know right now most pilots can’t quit and find another job easily and they have no intention to go back to 8/6. Let the countdown begin to exodus. They already lost two guys in a few weeks. All pay raises frozen. No holiday pay no bonus pay temporarily. They will not pay back pay for those who passed their employment anniversary. Dispatch has a like/dislike list of captains (they work the disliked captains like a dog) while liked ones have a balanced workload. Again not employed by them just passing info from someone who works there.

Glass Houses...

Hi LL,

I hope that you are surviving our current crisis well.. And I see that you that you have shown continued interest in our Company as we have chatted previously on this forum. So I would like to begin with a lot (but not all) of what you said is correct about flyExclusive, so I am here to pass on to you first hand information about what is going on at flyExclusive... I'm not here to get into a pi$$1ng contest with you, but I think that you are kind of poking a hole in our "life raft of good news among a sea of misery" ignoring the fact that we are still in business and getting paid relatively close to what we were making when so many other pilots aren't. I will acknowledge your truths and challenge your errors, IMHO,

We collectively as a planet are facing one of the most dire situations that we have been faced with in 100 years, and every company out there is in survival mode, especially aviation companies. Other than my peeps at XOJET, I can't think of another company that is unfazed by our current crisis including my friends at NJA, Flex, WUPGAMA, WUP DPJ, WUP TMC, Red Wing, Georgia Jet, and JetSuite, to name a few. To be fair, it is true what you said about the 15/13 schedule being temporarily implemented May 1, 2020 and all annual pay raises cancelled and bonuses suspended until at least September 30, 2020. All this was announced in the April 18th letter from our Chief Pilot, and was previously mentioned by our President (who has suspended all his pay until further notice) on one his weekly keep-your-chin-up video messages.

So earlier I wrote down the term "glass houses".. I say this because our aviation careers are SO fragile and our luck/career seems to be written in ice, never knowing when the sun is coming up.. And I can say that knowingly with 5 furloughs, a cancer diagnosis grounding, and a slip on the ice concussion grounding under my belt.. So YES, it is true what you said about the temporary schedule change to 15/13 (I was already on the 15/13 and my family and I love it..) and the bonus/raises suspended, but I would argue that our pilots are, sadly, faring better than many of our friends at other aviation companies, 91, 91K, 135, and 121.

We are a small, but growing, small town, North Carolina company, without all of the big money backers of some of our partners/competitors, but amazingly WE ARE STILL HERE and getting paid!! I really am amazed and happy to say that. While it's true that our pilots have had their lifestyles affected, we are still receiving our base pay on a daily rate even as we sit at home. I spent nearly the entire month of April at home, but was paid as always. Now, you are either off, out on the road getting paid, or on home reserve getting paid. Does it suck that our world at flyExclusive has been turned upside down and our schedule has been changed to 15/13 and our bonuses/raises suspended? Sure it does... But it also sucks that UAL, SWA, AA, DL, etc. are about to furlough, millions of Americans are out of work, and nearly 100,000 Americans are dead from COVID-19 with more to come..

Therefore, if you look at the big picture, our little company is doing relatively well, and our pilots are (even with the bonus/raises suspended), doing better and getting paid more than some of our better paying competitors, many who have either gone out of business or have implemented pay cuts of up to 50%. So yeah, I wish that I still had my Bonus and Step raise, but I am more happy to be working for a Company that is currently hiring 8 more pilots for the next class.

As far as your assertion that our Flight Control abuses selected pilots, I find that absurd since before this we barely had enough pilots to fly all our trips, much less the time to manage a shiznit list. We had X pilots and we had X planes, so a hard or easy rotation was simply the luck of the draw for me. When I was grounded for 6 months last year, after slipping on the ice, I was extended an offer to come help out with recruiting rather than just being home only on Workman's Constipation. During that time, I sat in an office our Flight Control and could hear our Flight Controllers talking with our pilots. I am not aware of any shiznit list of pilots, but every company has their pleasant and professional pilots and vice versa with their Dispatch/Flight Control. I am sure that they have pilots that they prefer to work with, just as pilots have controllers have Dispatchers that we would rather work with, but the idea of the disliked pilots being worked harder is silly.. If anything, human nature would be to give the easy going pilot the harder schedule lest they want to deal with the wrath of the PITA pilot. I am pretty easy going, and I have gotten worked to death (by our relaxed standards), compared to some of our few PITA's who sat in the hotel. While I have always been an advocate and defender of pilots, they are not all perfect and we too, have our tiny share of those pilots (although several have been shown the door with no tears from FO's and CSR's that were disrespected). Sitting there in Flight Control was an eye opener, hearing how some of the above pilots spoke to the folks there, and it bothered me that some of us were like that.. As far as your assertion that "they have no intent to return to the 8/6 schedule"", well, that remains to be seen. What I will tell you is that every promise that Management at flyExclusive has ever made to me has either been met, or exceeded. Interpolating from that, I have no doubt that they will eventually bring that 8/6 schedule back although I want no part of 8/6 since 6 days off is not enough for me and my family.

So while flyExclusive has had to make some tough decisions that have affected all employees in order to survive this crisis, especially the pilots, they are also the company that...:

*Let me delay my IOE to attend my Uncle's 100th Birthday (Who died 2 months after, so this was my last chance to see him) celebration, while getting full pay.
*Let me travel regularly between NC and CA for FAA mandated Cancer checks every 6 months. And to visit family
*Directed me to fly myself and a fellow crew member home in the Company jet, to get there before Hurricane Florence hit us. Then, they let us stay at home as long as we needed and called to check out how we fared and offered to help us if needed.
*Flew a fellow team member's entire family on a paid trip to Disneyland after a terminal diagnosis.
*Flew the Wife and Children of one of our pilots to the hospital where they were very sick.
*Allowed me to finish up in TN to empty out a storage unit there at the end of a rotation.
*Allowed me extra time to empty out a house in CA and drive across to NC.
*Dropped $1300 on a last minute ticket from TVC to SMF after I got a concussion. Then, they called my Wife to tell her I was coming and what happened, and then called to check up on how I was feeling.
*Allowed me to get paid more than just Workman's Comp by helping out with recruiting at our HQ.
*Gave me extra time to celebrate my return to flying and eventual upgrade so our family would have extra days with me in NAS.
*And finally, decided NOT to furlough any pilots or institute any paycuts like so many others have.

So, while we aren't perfect with the highest pay or the best schedule as of today, we are doing pretty darn well considrering our size and we are actually hiring pilots right now. I feel that our Company has showed compassion for its employees during this crisis, and has certainly showed care, compassion, and respect to me in particular. We are a Company where you can walk right in to the President's, DO's, etc. office without having to schedule an appointment. We are not perfect, but I for one am proud of our growth and am proud to work here and am elated with our exponential growth even with this crisis.. I would have no reservations about having a friend come here, and indeed have helped friends get on. Two of my soon to be furloughed friends from the Majors will be starting here soon.

Finally, No, we still don't have the 7/7 schedule as wonderful as that would be. You will see that at one of the deep pockets, Kenny Dichter Wheels Up properties or Euro-financed XO/Vista first.

Respectfully...

Crockrocket95

Nice writeup B727.

UTR69

For the record, it wasn't me this time slamming this company..... who suddenly went from "7th largest charter company in the world" to "small NC, hometown ma/pa company".

Don't forget to mention the random calls to pilots letting several go. Out of the blue with no warning and no disciplinary action. I guess that's what you get from an "at will" employer. That was a foul.....

Pilot "A" team and "B" team.........yeah, maybe, maybe not. I would have to actually agree with you and say that it is more the company forcing pilots into making bad calls and that sales board in dispatch counting up the dollars coming in....don't forget the President of the company calling a pilot who called fatigue and attempted to bargin with him to get him to do "just this flight and we will clear your schedule for the rest of the day".



Buyer/pilot beware....

B727DRVR

Welcome back, UTR!

Long time, no talk to. I hope that you are faring well during this crisis, I truly do. It has been a while since we have sparred, but that is probably fitting since a lot has happened since January and there were a lot more important things going on than monitoring and posting on APC. Anyway, I would like to ask the question that I have asked you before (and you never answer) and more and more of your fellow pilots ponder who read these threads wonder about: "What have we ever done to you?" I ask this because in your 16 posts attacking our Company, all negative, you are attacking your fellow pilots and other team members with each post. We often wonder what we must have done to you to have fed your sustained attacks for over a year now, and wonder what has kept you from moving on to other hobbies than just attacking us on APC.. Not even a post on "What's going on with hiring at DAL, AA, UPS, Netjets, etc.. Just flyExclusive, baaadddd. Oh, well...

But since we are back at this old fun game, lets try to answer some of your questions, shall we? First, I don't remember if I said if we are the 7th largest charter operator or not, but who says that you can't still retain your small, family minded company feeling (or ma/pa as you say), even as you grow... The two don't have to be mutually exclusive, and if you ever read my posts you would know that they aren't..

Next, you are concerned with the terminations that happened recently and you say that there was no warning or progressive discipline.. So I guess that you have a mole or bug in the HR Manager or DO's office that you know that to be the case, right? Wrong.. I am almost never elated to see someone let go, but if you lie and try to cover up something, use profanity to other cremembers, CSR's, line personel, whatever, I have no sympathy. It is well known that the Company believes in second chances if you tell the truth and admit to your error, and show a sense of contrition. Often, maybe even usually, they will give you another chance. But if you lie or try to cover it up, game over. I am not in HR, and only hear rumors, but I know that you can only get so many warnings before somethings gonna happen.

As far as the President calling someone and trying to "bargain" someone out of a fatigue call, I will tell you what my experience is.. In my just over two years here, I have called "fatigue" twice now and have been given extended rest with no questions. I routinely write up squacks on planes that need them and I AM STILL HERE, LOL. I have never received any push back on either fatigue calls or write ups. If the Fleet Lead, Chief Pilot, DO, or even the President did call me to ask if I had tried something or made a suggestion on how to reset something, I would gladly listen to their suggestions and wouldn't take it as a threat. But that has never happened, so I will just have to imagine. The ONLY calls I have ever received from our President were on Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and Easter (Yeah, luck of the draw and volunteering, I worked all of the above) to thank all the pilots that were working during the Holiday. This "bad" man also called to see how I was when I got hurt last year, and called my Wife to let her know that I got hurt and that I was OK and was being deadheaded home. So that's my experience with our President. If you haven't seen his weekly information videos to us during the crisis, you should check them out.. On the first video, he looked really tired and worried, as if the Russians were just outside the city gates. You could hear the concern in his voice and see it in his eyes. But as his videos progressed, they became more hopeful and positive, as he gave us video tours of the progress of the construction of our new facilities, which transformed right before our eyes over the weeks of his videos. He also showed us our fleet parked at our HQ when we were flying very little (which was cool to have such a huge, growing fleet but at the same time scary that it was mostly parked). Having worked at a 135 company in the 1990's where pilots WERE threatened, I can tell you that this "bargaining" has never happened to me (but I'm not saying that you are making this up). You can tell a lot about a Company and it's Management team by the way they treat you when the chips are down, and I am pretty impressed over how we have been treated in comparison to many other companies that you can read about right here in both the Fractional and 135 APC forums.

Finally, UTR, I am really just glad that we are still around for you to troll, as so many others are not, with sadly more to follow. We are a company that has survived thus far, and even continued to hire, with a new INDOC class starting soon and new aircraft coming online. Our pilots, who have felt some temporary effects such as everyone now on 15/13 and the suspension of bonus/step increases, are actually making more than some of our competitors as they have sat at home on reserve. And while, sadly, I have unfortunately heard very few airlines on the radio, I have heard our JS tails all across the country and seen them a random airports, along with other Fractionals and 135's. It has been heartening to see us survive and persevere through this crisis. So remember as you critique and attack us, you are attacking a Company that has continued to provide for its employees during one of the most serious crises in our Nation's history, when so many other companies haven't. We continue to grow and hire, despite this Global tragedy, and it looks like we might indeed make it. I am proud of what we have accomplished over just 5 short years, and I wear our uniform proudly. As I have said before, I wouldn't (and haven't) hesitate to bring a friend on here, and thus far, none of them have punched me in the face yet for bringing them on. Just next month, I have a friend furloughed from a Legacy starting here and he is excited to be coming on.

And don't forget, UTR, as long as you left here in good standing, our Company's practice is to take you back if the grass turns out not to be greener. Hopefully, you have a good gig out there, but hey.. it's always an option.

Good luck and stay safe and healthy.

captfred

I am 2 years retired now including some time at FE but enjoy reading through these debates. The growth at FE was nothing short of amazing. They had a fantastic Chief Pilot there who I heard moved on to being the Gulfstream Fleet Manager. I see more flights being added in both the 121 and 135 worlds. I think the worst is behind us. Unfortunately for the airline guys there will be big furloughs on Oct 1 due to the fed funding agreements.

As for some folks getting terminated let me just say that one of those was the most disagreeable pilot I ever came across in my 45 year aviation career. Sounds like they pruned some dead wood to me.

I hope you guys survive. JS is a smart man-I think you will.

captfred

A couple of negatives: I never understand how FE could get so big without obtaining a Part 145 repair certificate. Second thing is that they do not have a ASAP program. Perhaps these things changed by now.

The policy of not reimbursing tips was irritating. They had some pilots who never gave a line crews a dime because the company would not reimburse them. Most of us tipped them anyway- they have families also. When one of them drives you 10 miles to a hotel you can not just jump out and say thanks for the ride.

JS did have a failed Hawker 1000 operation known as Pegasus Air Elite that folded on no notice. I think this one survives.

B727DRVR

Hey Fred,

Hope that you are doing well and enjoying AVL, I think that we talked last year if you remember me...

Anyway, the good news is that the Part 145 program is in the works, just like ASAP was, and we have had the ASAP program for several months now (although I haven't used it yet, LOL). I believe that they want it to coincide with the grand opening of our new facility, in which building has continued this whole time and is going up fast. I don't know if it is anywhere else online, but Mike's videos show the progress of the facility over the period as well as seeing a good bit of the fleet all in one place.

Yeah, we were hoping for tip reimbursement on the last round, but it didn't happen. It's not a deal breaker for most of us though, as I always tipped since I was an FO. I think most of those guys are now gone, or were shamed by FO's tipping but not the Captain. Having worked line, I know those guys and girls appreciate it. I will also bring the occasional pizza or Del Taco pack to our frequently visited FBO's, to show them our appreciation.

I was in the Doubletree lobby in PDK, where I saw an obvious flight crew in plainclothes waiting for the shuttle to grab a bite to eat. I jingled the crew car keys in front of them and offered them a ride. It turned out that the Captain was the former Chief Pilot for Pegasus, so we had a great conversation. He said that the whole thing wen't down during the heat of the Great Recession, and that a lot of angst came from that tough call on the shutdown. He was very excited to see how well we were doing and that Jim had succeeded.

If I didn't tell you, I'll be honest with you.. I didn't apply here for about a month and a half because of what I read about Jim and this Company on this very forum. There was nothing good on here about us, and the posters made it sound like a dumpster fire train wreck. And there was certainly nothing nice written about Jim. While I read negative posts on this and another forum about Jim and the Company, I waited to apply. Finally, this well-spoken guy, Amphibian, just posted facts about the Company, soft spoken with little emotion, and he could spell and punctuate unlike the the other posters. Anyway, I reached out to Amphibian, I'm glad that I did, and the rest is history. Good history for me.. While I don't see Jim that much, I have seen nothing but kindness from him personally and for his employees... And I promise that he is not standing over my shoulder while I am typing this or if he has ever even read APC, LOL.

Take care Fred.

New Guy 007

Hello B727DRVR, any chance you can find a minute to answer a quick question that maybe other folks would be interested in knowing? I read over your last couple of posts, didn't read anything about some serious talk about returning to the 8/6 schedule. Some people like the 15/13 schedule, for some that is major game changer being gone for 15 day's when you have a family. Appreciate a quick yes or no answer. Everyone stay safe!