Stupid question - Pinnacle or GoJet?!
 

So I've been offered jobs with both GoJet and Pinnacle. The choice is obvious, everything in my head is screaming go to Pinnacle. However, my wife and I have only recently relocated to Chicago, so GoJet still deserves a few moments of consideration. Normally I would go straight for Pinnacle, but living in base, a short reserve and a quicker command are all making me think twice, albeit very briefly. What would you do?

I would bid ORD Q400 in a year or so

Yeah, he has a point. Everything is pointing to the Q being in ORD and DEN within the next year or two.

Your career isn't worth the possible trouble you might see from going to gojets. I'm not saying you will have trouble but its not worth the possibility when you've worked really hard and paid a lot to get where you are.

what if he got hired by the current 9e side and SLI has a fence? are we sure that we are gonna be able to go from RJFO to Q in a year? not yet....
true Gojet is probably gonna have a stigma for the next few years, but something is to be said for living in base.....but these days you never know how long a base will be open till you are displaced or the base closes completely..

Avoid Gojet unless you want to avoid career progression.

Avoid gojet- 1000 points.


Pinnacle will work out well for you, we have alot of chicago commuters to DTW and all of say it's a breeze, plus that's the base with the movement right now.

Newhires probably won't have to worry about fences.

Pinnacle also has one of the best dispatchers in the business, and she is doing her best to make the rest there in her image. I can't say the same for those at G7.

I cannot believe anyone would want to work for either.

Moderator note: Your first post ever on this site and this is it? There is sometimes a little leeway given depending on your past posting history but with only one post so far 100% of your post(s) are flamebait. If the only reason you post is to solicit reactions and not dialogue then this may not be the place for you.

hey sgt. I am not trying to offend anyone. Many great gigs are out there right now.. just saying.

51 driver, 3 Stripes was looking for quality of life info, he's from Chicago after all. Are there better airlines than those mentioned, YES, but he was offered employment at those two. now a days it is hard to be picky when you have as many people unemployed as there are. Given the two choices, I'd say Pinnacle is the better of the two; however I am admittedly biased.

No worries. Just a note since you were new here to set the tone of what we are looking for as far as how users conduct themselves.

You may need to educate yourself before you speak

Pinnacle FTW. So many more options. Plus a lot of the guys are looking to get out in the next hiring boom. Big movement coming up. Definitely worth the chance.

Do you really want to risk being labeled a scab for the rest of your career. Good thing you would live in base at GJ, I'm sure jumpseating might get a little tough.

To OP: do a little research on how Gojet came to exist. This is a small industry and labels will NEVER disappear.

Another important thing to remember is Gojet pilots can't ride in Pinnacle and many other airline jumpseats....

If you know for sure pinnacle is going to open ORD base for the Q'4 I say a little sacriface would be worth the wait. Quality of life should be #1, living in base is a bless, on the other hand Go-Jet can give you that quality of life living in base not to commute, but choose wisely, a job is a job.

Driver

Gojet pilots can't ride Mesaba jumpseats either, how many airlines can that be said of? Not very many, I'd hate to be trying to jumpseat and have a distinct possibilty of getting denied.

It depends on the captains, I personally witness a GoJet jumpseater getting denied in a flight, but on another flight he got admitted. When I was an FO we had some GoJets jumpseating on my flight and no problem at all.

You do understand what a Scab is and how they become one right....GoJets may be ill-advised, but he will not be a scab. There's a scab list and as far as I know, there are no Gojet guys on it solely by taking employment there..

Use your head.

I can't say go to either one , however what I can say is, I would never chase a airline ESP a regional for a base. This industry changes all the time and this amazing ORD base that is there now could easily be changed in a few months and there you have it, your off to commuting.

The new United may need those 700's in another base once things change. And your commute life begins.

One thing I could atleast say about Pinnacle is they have multiple bases so atleast you have plenty of places to commute from. Versus only 2 bases at Go/. ( I think )


Good luck either way. :)

I agree Sire

Driver

Some very interesting replies. Thanks guys. I'm going to be spending a lot of time talking this over with my wife. I really appreciate all of the feedback, both positive and negative.

In all honesty, I would go with which one makes your QOL better..... Not commuting and being able to stay at home is worth a whole helluva lot.....

Pay, contracts etc. probably will not factor in too much. The pay sucks either way, and the workrules are for the most part similar across all regionals. Give or take some various parts. You'll get abused, hate one part or another, but in the end work rules are generally much better than at 135 places. And worse than Majors/LCC's.

Besides msg. boards, there will probably not be one instance of catching any slack in the airport. 1) Pilots are generally too chicken Sh!t to say things face to face. 2)What are they gonna do? Fight you at work?

I'm furloughed NJA and also worked at a so called upper tier regional maybe 5 years ago. I now work with various guys including ex-Mesa. Mesa had a direct impact on my regional. And I really could care less now. Besides the guy is a stand up guy, I just don't care about his background. And most likely in a few years when you've got the time to move on, an interviewer won't either.

Commuting sucks, moving to base is always an option. But even better if that base is your hometown.

but in the end work rules are generally much better than at 135 places

The 135 companies I worked for treated me at least as well, if not better than my 121 company

in before lock.........


continue on

Thats 5! Still laughing.

First off, congratulations on the job offers. Since your looking for opinions I'll suggest PCL as well. They are well positioned within the industry. FWIW. Now go have a Pimm's!!:)

I thought ORD doesn't allow any turboprops. So how could they have a q400 base their. Even on the corporate side you can't get in their with a kingair so you have to go to DPA? Anyone else know about this rule?

I'm not sure about that rule...

I know that Air Choice One is flying their Caravans to ORD.

ive seen prop jobs fly into ord....

I am not sure of the no turbo prop rule maybe it has to do with size or speed. As we hold 74 pax and fly at near jet speeds they might have gotten an exemption if one was required. I do know we have been going from CLE to ORD for the past few months in the Q400. I think this will continue for the near future. I personally know of Jeff Smisek traveling as a pax on two of the flights in the last 3 weeks and we still are doing it so it must be OK with him. Although I would like to see it, I would caution anyone who plans on seeing a Q400 base in ORD in the near future. Unless they close some other base we do not have the aircraft, and based on Bombardiers web sight the earliest we could get Q400s is about 2 years with the options we currently have. I would bet on a few aircraft being based at IAD first but who knows.

Colgan already flies into ORD and has been for a while.

On a side note...dont beat the gojet dead horse or the thread will end up like the other gojet threads we all know about.

I've talked with several Q guys here at 9L (Colgan for those of you who don't know the airline codes) and they have all said we are losing the EWR-BWI-CLE-ORD route soon. We are picking up flying out of IAD beginning in June, but this has not been announced officially by our company. One of our pilots happened to be bored and found it on the United website.

No word yet on a IAD base for the Q.

It's all speculation at this point where our next set of Q400s will go. Anyone that tells you otherwise either has extremely hush-hush inside info, or doesn't know what they're talking about. My vote is the latter of the 2.

Good luck on your decision :) We'd be happy to have ya here!

I've flown kingairs into ORD, DFW and ATL.....landing fees are a bit steep that's about the only obstacle to doing it...

There are some that do, some that don't....... But working at a 121 carrier "generally" gives you a bit better foot to stand on. Try telling "most" 135 operators your not taking a flight because you'll surpass 14 hrs. by 3 minutes.... Or can't make it non-stop because you'll be a tad short on your reserve fuel on landing..... In general, not at all places of course, you'll be eventually labelled as a problem or a non-team player. This is of course in reference to most starter jobs and no way is accurate concerning reputable companies or large flight department. (of course if you worked at a large reputable flight department the OP would n't be trying for the regionals.)

Just an observation from my 2 135 jobs vs. my 2 airline jobs. Not at all 100% accurate of course.

At a regional you'll put in long days, and alot of legs. Stay in average hotels and eat lots of airport food. But it's the same at every regional. You'll get abused on reserve and miss lots of commutes home because of crap that could have been avoided.

We also fly the Navajo in there on days a Caravan goes to the shop. They don't much care for that though. Honestly, they're pretty cool with us because we can go 170 downhill all the way to the numbers and still make it off 28 at ZV. We actually gain on jets inside the marker. Though, these days are coming to an end for me because I start at Colgan on Monday.

Are her initials L.A.?
If so, she was the best dispatcher/ crew scheduler I have EVER dealt with at Colgan back in the day.
She is also a very good person/friend...
Back on topic, Pinch-A-Nickle (;)), has a DTW base, no? DTW is not that far from ORD, and not that bad of a commute...

I don't know who LA is, but IMO I believe there is no better dispatcher at Pinnacle (9E) than Jackie... I hope she sticks around and all of our dispatchers become more like her....