?? for those NetJets guys/gals..
 

I am wondering what the typical schedule of a Net Jets crew is? I understand there is a 7 on 7 off deal. But can anyone explain the flex 18 day thing? I am trying to look into Netjets more but I dont have any idea what schedules are or what lifestyle is like... I see the pay on APC. I appreciate anyones help out there. thnx

Pay on the APC scale is base pay. You will make more than that in the course of a year. I make about 15% on top of base. Plus there is full health and dental, 50% match 401K, and per diem (that is rarely used). Crew meals are not deducted from per diem. QOL is great and the pay makes it even better.

18 day vary across the board in how they are done. We put into the computer what times we want off and they try to build the schedule around it. 15 day is 3 5-day trips that are dropped wherever they are needed with a minimum of 3 days off between trips. I loved the 15 day but it didn't work well with my guard schedule. I'm back on the 7 and 7.

Good luck.

F16,

Out of curiosity how does vacation work on 15 day? Do they conveniently schedule you on either end of your vacation?

F16Driver
15 day is 3 5-day trips that are dropped wherever they are needed with a minimum of 3 days off between trips..

You said that they are dropped wherever they are needed? what does that mean? Is there any chance I could see one of your bids or lines? I am Confused because if your work or are on a trip the 1st 5 days of the month and then off 3 days and do it again for the next 2 weeks after the 24th of the month you still have 6 days left in the month? does that mean your off or on call?and how would the 18 month flex work? I think its easiest to understand the 7 on 7 off. but I would like to look into a job that wouldnt be gone always 7 straight days. thanks so much for your help..

After 15 days of work in the month you are off.

On the 15 day, I would call crew services the last week of the month and they told me when my 5 day trips would be for the next month. The scheduling computer already knows when you are needed. I always worked those trips exactly as they were fragged. I was never on call.

I don't know how the 18 day works other than you request the time you want off, long or short trips, and the computer generates the schedule for the next month.

I also don't have experience with how the vacation works with the 15 day.

Vacation on the 15 and 18 day schedules is pretty much the same. You get your week that you bid for and they give you a lead in of 4 days off before and then 4 days off after the bid week to bring it to 15 days. On the 18 day you can bid for a block of up to 3 days off before it and you will find out by the 15th of the month before your vacation if you got those days. You can also bid a block after it since we can bid for 2 separate 3 day blocks of time off per month. I would guess it's unlikely to get both 3 day blocks you asked for within the same month, but it is possible. I bid my vacations so that they would flow from one month into the next to make it more likely to get 3 days before and 3 days after (stretching it to 21 days). I got the first 3 and I'll find out by the 15th of next month if I got the last three to make a full 21 off in a row. In theory you could end up with more time than that off since it's a fixed schedule that you bid on on-line, but they make each schedule by hand and I guess if they like you it is possible for good things. The 15 day schedule will get you a minimum of 15 days off in a row for vacation and they will tell you what they project for you to work, but no extra days around the vacation are for sure off unless you finished a trip 1 to 3 days before the beginning of your vacation. I hope this helps and doesn't just make everything more confused.

We are way too junior to think about vacation. Anyway I'm going stir crazy with all the time off I've had so far. I guess I need a few more hobbies.

Is mailing your application and resume to NJ the only way to apply? I was checking out their site and dont see an online application.

Any help?

THanks
ARL

The 15 day schedule during a vacation period means you have 7 days of vacation and 8 remaining days of work. 7 + 8 = 15. You can only work 5 days at a time, except training. Most likely, you will get 2 tours that are 4 days long.
If you have vacation and training (7 days total including 2 travel days) in the same month, and training does not overlap two months, you will likely not be used for your one day.

I will give this a shot, just one thing, I am on the 400XP and things are different on other fleets, mainly with how much you work within a tour. So first you need to erase all ideas of an airline pilot schedule or bidlines work, they don't exist on the 18 day schedule. In order to get this schedule I submitted a bid preference sheet with options for two specific days off, short/long tours (short 6 or less, long 7 or more (4 eight day tours a year max)), and balanced/unbalanced days off (balanced meaning 3off 6on 3off 6on 3off 6on 3off to = 30 days and unbalanced meaning 6on 5off 5on 3off 7on 4off = 30 days. Then you can prioritize what you want most, right now it is done with humans and it is to be a computer in the next year or so, we are hoping a computer can do better. Here was my schedule on the 18 day for March-July, I have just put the days I worked any day not covered is a day off:

March: Tours 1-4, 11-17, 24-30
April: Tours 4-9, 15-20, 25-30
May: Tours 1-2, 8-14, Vaca 19-21, tour 26-31
June: Tours 1, 8-13, 17-21, Training 25-30
July: Training 1, Tours 6-11, 15-20, 27-31

When I bid it is pretty random, but unless I really need a day off I look for short tours. The three days of vacation happens when you get hired in the middle of the vacation year and only comes in your first year. On the tour from April 25-May 2nd I was sent home on May 1st (400XP thing). On all of these tours I only started on day once before 8am. If I remember correctly I was home before sunset everyone of them too. So now that you have the days you are working you can see what you will do on these days. I will pick a tour at random and tell you how it went: So the day before day one of a tour I will get a brief for day one on my Blackberry between 6-7pm. Brief is for 8am show for 8:30am Airline/Ground for PBI-MCO. I show up at 8am and here is what I did that day: Actually I was updated to not show until 9am then I took a Taxi (aka town car) from PBI-FLL, fly WN from FLL-MCO, went to Signature and sat for 4 hours munching on crew food until we went to the hotel for the night at 6pm. Day two: Show at 10am for flights MCO-PIE-IAD, arrived at IAD at 4pm and went to the hotel. Day three: 5am show to sit at Signature, ferry to HPN at 11am. Plane broke and went to the hotel at 1pm. Day four: 3am show on duty at hotel, duty ended at 10am. Day five: 4am show for flights HPN-YYZ-MMU, went to the hotel around 10am, had hotel duty until 1pm. Day six: Show at 7am for a limo to EWR and US EWR-CLT-PBI and back to PBI at 4:30p.

Now if someone would put a CE-750 or CE-650 tour on here it would probably have a little more flying involved. Some things to remember max duty day day is 14 hours, time over 12 hours is paid an hourly rate (about $35-$45/hr for a 1st year FO). Minimum rest is 10 hours. These are hard times and while mistakes happen as soon as it is pointed out it is fixed no question.

Well I hope this helps a little bit and if it is clear as mud I will try to answer questions as there is a lot more to it and I simplified it.

Great add to the thread! It certainly puts the trips or "tours" into perspective as to what one can expect.

Thanks for the info!

ARL

Here is a screen shot from a 15 day flex on the X (aka CE-750).

Day 1. Pick plane at base DEN, ferry ASE, 1 pax HPN, stnby 2 hrs at NJ hangar, hotel.

Day 2. HPN-Bermuda 5 pax, hotel stnby for 30 minutes then called back out to ferry to MCO, hotel.

Day 3. MCO-Antigua 7 pax, ferry to StThomas, hotel.

Day 4. TIST-MMU, 8 pax + 1 lap baby and an absurd amount of catering, restock of a completely pillaged aircraft at MMU, ferry to TEB, hotel.

Day 5. Stnby at TEB from 5-11, airline EWR-DEN on CAL.

This type of tour (not necessarily the destinations except TEB) is a typical schedule on the X. My tour prior was not, 3 nights in LAS doing nothing. One flight on day 4 to SDL and then ride on another plane H-800 to LAS, broken plane in SDL and LAS, off to hotel. Airline home early on day 5.

Thanks guys... This has helped alot to see what its really like over there. Can I ask. I understand you must cater to the customer as they do pay the bills and the company depends on them to make business.

Are you expected to interact alot with the customers like serving them food or drinks while flying or on the ground? Im sure during a delay on the ground they can be in the FBO. Also I understand most FBOs will do the lav..correct? Will they do the luggage as well and clean the plane or are you as the crew assigned to cleaning (like what if someone makes a mess back there in the lav for example?)
Im sure your asked this alot. sorry about asking again. I definatly understand that your customers should not board a dirty airplane since they are paying top money and they are your customers.
Thanks

Many FBOs ask if we need a vacuum or something. The X has an external lav dumping system, so the line guys use that. Most of the time we clean up the messes made by the owners, we also vacuum and wipe down trays and windows. Some line guys will load bags, but again we usually do it ourselves. If you can get a line person to do the work and you tip them, you will be reimbursed by the company. If you have a smoker on board, you can request that a professional cleaning be ordered when you land, as the plane will surely stink.

We do not cater in flight. The owners know where we keep the food and snacks and they help themselves. We do brief them on safety, regardless of how many times they have been on this type of airplane. I personally give the same brief to everyone. I will often ask if they need anything before I hope up front. Many take a water, a few a coffee, and that is pretty much it. Some of the owners will ask us, during flight, if we need anything. Otherwise, I am of the opinion that my job is up front once the engines are running. We are required to check on the pax every so often, to make sure they are still alive. Before I use the lav, I will sometimes ask if anyone needs anything. Almost always they say no.

Loading bags in the X can be pain in the back, with the size of bags (large) vs space (small for our size), the heat and humidity, or the cold and ice. Most pax are not too messy, some will amaze you and make you say ***? when strawberries are ground in the carpet and crushed pringles are dumped in the compartment that holds the phone. There are indeed bad days and bad customers, but overall most are pretty good.

While everything So Wonwee said is pretty much standard, you have to look at things by fleet as we have so many and each one is a little different. The main difference with what I experience is the lav, the 400XP is not a good lav, it is internal servicing. Most FBOs have a policy that they will not come into the airplane to get he honey pot for liability reasons so you have a choice of dealing with the smell until you get to a lav friendly FBO or doing it yourself. Its not that bad though, you open the toilet and put a lid on it and then take the tank out (we have a lav kit with goggles, gloves and an apron), the FBO will then clean out the tank. We can tip up to $20 to the line guys for doing it. One good thing about the 400XP is we can usually only do a max of 3 hours and its usually around 1 hours legs so the lav is rarely used, I'd say I have to personally pull the pot out on average once every other month. The key of this is "mileage will very" between fleets, time of year and every other variable you can think of.

NZNV,
Do you guys hold the 20 out in both hands and walk around the ramp asking if anyone wants to do a lav? Seems like that might be effective, perhaps?

Do you have cockpit doors?

i think the falcons do but otherwise no cockpit doors

There are curtains on just about every airplane, but they are used very rarely- mostly at night to keep the cockpit dark for the approach and landing. No door is one of the few things I miss from the airlines and not from the safety standpoint. A long flight just doesn't seem so long with a cockpit door.

We have doors on the BE-400, but it makes the cockpit feel really small, especially went you bang your elbows on them trying to get charts out.

Here is another question. When you airline out, do you get to use the crew line? What about when crew pass is set up? Will they put you in the CASS system to get through? Thx for all the responses, very helpful thread.

When we airline, we are passengers, just like the rest of those in the back of the plane. Some of our guys still think they're airline pilots and try to use the crew line. TSA at a few airports, (CMH & HPN) will often give them crap. I go through the regular line and have no problems at all. Occasionally, TSA will even wave me forward, as a professional courtesy. If you want to use the crew line, work for an airline.

We will probably never be in CASS, and I believe we only have one jumpseat agreement with CommutAir, which was left over from many years ago and they are still nice about it. We will not be a part of Crew Pass, and will be treated the same as you will be commuting or deadheading, I would assume. For now I just walk up to security and they tell me where to go, usually it is to the crew line (except CMH and HPN), usually standing in line is no big deal because you will normally have a minimum of 1 hour (1.5 and 2 hours for bigger airports) scheduled prior to any airline flight (also remember if you miss your flight due to security it is not your problem). For me airlining is the worst part of my job, it would be interesting if they did a poll on the negatives of working for a fractional, I bet airlining would be #1.

Airlining IS #1. A poll doesn't need to be taken.

What if the airline flight is delayed or canceled, or the airport is closed for the day due to extreme winter weather, for example?

Just call the flight manager. Then, it's up to the company to make alternate arrangements.

you will be fired!

Not always true. The FMs may have you stand in the customer service line for that airline and have the airline rework you. I had this once on a canceled flight.

If this happens on you last day and they are unable to get you home by 14 hours of duty or 24:00 you earn a double whammy, two extended days of pay and on the 18day schedule, year two, it is $1000. So if you see a NJA pilot on your flight and you are pushing midnight you can probably work out a deal if you block in at 12:01am, hehe.

It's really no big deal....

You're on the company clock, so it's up to them to figure out what they want to do with you.

Last month I had a connecting flight on AA cancel on me at DFW -- company had me "hang-out" for a couple of hours to try to squeeze onto the next flight (which was oversold at the time) I didn't get on, so they put me up at the Westin for the night and we tried again in the morning.

I dunno, if you put it up against 135 O2 regs, seven day tours, cleaning airplanes/lavs, loading bags, or flying into places like BLM or VNC on season it would be an interesting survey.

hey another question for you netjet folks, Whenever I send the application with my resume and all (fedex?), do I send my letters of recommendation and all that as well? I guess my question is, is it ok to just send a big packet of stuff? What other application tips do you guys have? Thanks!

getting to work--NetJets
 

• Pilots can utilize any of 100 crew bases.

I see the above blurb in the benefits package PDF. Does this mean NetJets is responsible to get the crewmember from the domicile to the trip start point?

Or is the crewmember responsible for any commuting? (I'm thinking in the sense of "home-basing", where the company buys you a ticket if necessary.)

Forgive me if this is addressed on a different thread.

Thanks.
Zach

Zack,

The company will get you from your home base to your airplane to start the trip. It could be by airline, rental car, limo, etc. You will receive your travel info usually around 1800 the night before. Your responsibility is to be at your home base to start the tour (theoretically at 0001.)

On the last day, they are responsible to get you back to your home base by midnight. Otherwise, they have to pay you for 2 extended days (ie: big bucks).

When you airline, what kind of ticket do you get? First class or coach? Do you fly SW or just AA, CL etc? Saw a guy with a NETJETS hat on the other day going from CMH-LAS just wondering if he was a pilot or just wearing the hat.

The best answer to all of your questions is, "everything is random," but I will try to expand on it a little. You will get the cheapest ticket that is most convenient to the company. So typically on day one you will get the most direct flight that has you show after 8am (before 8am day one you make overtime). First class does happen once in a while if that is all that is left and they need you somewhere, also I think if they have you fly over 5 time zones you get first class so Europe or HI-east coast you will be in 1st. Going home they will (depending on if they need you) plan your last day based on the cheapest ticket. Being based in PBI they sometimes get a cheaper ticket to FLL and then they have me rent a car or take a limo to PBI. As far as the airline you get goes, it all depends on where you go, and where you live, if you live in CVG you will fly DL most of the time and if you live in BNA you will fly WN, and so fourth (there are a few airlines on a no-fly list that you will not fly on). In the past two years I have flown on DL, US, UA, NW, CO, AA, WN, and AT. I am a Silver Medallion on Delta and coach middle seat on the others. As far as the guy going to LAS with the hat, who knows, they gave us a box of hats and shirts last Christmas, so my neighbors have them, its anyones guess who it was. Hope this helps.

What's a typical time to command adn do you revert to year 1 Captain pay or carry seniority. Thanks.

I'm not going to speculate on your first question because all it would be is a guess.....

As for the second question, you retain longevity when upgrading. If you upgrade during your 4th year with the company (on the 5th year payscale) you would start at 5th year Captain pay.

Under the old contract, pay for larger aircraft (GIV/V and Falcon 2000EZ) used to be based upon "time in program" but that no longer exists.

Thanks, Omaha; that's what I wanted to hear.

Zach

Bumping it up so this thread can be found easier