Originally Posted by kolt66

Yeah, $50/day per diem sucks but you didn't have to pay for all of those catered meals, right?

Originally Posted by BYOB

Those catered meals are paid for by the company. Some stations have better catering than others. What is universal regardless of station is the portion size. The salad is smaller than the palm of your hand; I’d say a third of the time the hot meals are inedible; what you can count on are delicious sweets and treats, which are not exactly nourishing for your body.

On my most recent experience I had the steak (a chunk of meat that was more of a medallion sized piece of meat that had a grey/green tint to it, no I’m not making that up). I hunt and process my own meat so I was a little skeptical but took a bite anyways. I didn’t swallow the piece of meat I was chewing because it was apparent that it was bad. I tossed that meal. The next day in Germany I paid the price for trying to eat that meat. Another crew member ate the lasagna, he also paid the price for about 24 hours in Germany.

And that was how we spent more than 36 hours in Germany....in our hotel rooms.

Maybe it would be better if we used our $50 per diem to do our own catering?

You’re missing the point if you think that the company is paying for catering out of the goodness of their hearts. They do the absolute bare minimum catering to keep planes moving and have (as of late) made unannounced changes to the catering guidelines established when I came here. For instance, coffee is no longer a required time (despite the fatigue training in the classroom with a slide showing a pilot with a nice cup of coffee) and now milk has also been removed from the catering guidelines.

Originally Posted by IFlyDaPlane

But...

11 days off when you're gone for 20 is very different from 11 days off when you're mostly home. Atlas' pay is ridiculously out of whack with the amount of sacrifice that one must make. I was hired six months ago. I had hoped then that there would be some movement on the contract. The opposite happened and the company dug in their heels and went the other way. I was truly shocked. Management must be oblivious of the current state of the industry. They also seem to really hate their own employees. None of the negotiations have showed any real progress, which was very discouraging. Yea, I had a couple of fun trips. But on $50 per diem? Really? Who the f*ck negotiated that? CONUS and OCONUS allowance rates that the US taxpayers think is fine to pay US government employees are substantially higher than Atlas's rates everywhere on Earth. Reasonable Per diem is tax free, so I really, truly can't understand why the previous contract negotiators f*cked this up so badly.

This job may have been tolerable back when the rosters didn't keep one away for the full 17 days + commuting on either end. In the present state, with the current ridiculously bad contract, and seeing little hope for a decent contract any time soon I told them that they could keep their peanuts and I (very easily) found work elsewhere. There are many, many profitable airlines who are abundantly willing to pay pilots a professional, living wage. Atlas is not one of them. Probably at least partially because they can't afford it due to their own management ineptitude. But that's another subject. . .

But hey, if you don't need to earn a living, are flying for a hobby, and want a 50-50 shot at flying the 747, go for it. Try not to think about all those sweet seniority numbers going by at the other carriers when you're enjoying min-rest in Bagram or CVG...

Originally Posted by Globemaster2827

I wish there were a way to double our Per Diem and you just show up with your own food. The Catering is rotten half the time. Any where out of Asia, ORD, CVG, LAX, GYD, SYD, MIA, IAH, JFK, any where in Africa... Don't bother.

You can try to live off of catering on first year but that won't be an option until you start OE. They're supposedly hiring 150 747 FOs in the next few months so that "Free Food" won't start for 4 months or more as OE will back up. Keep in mind that 747 CAPTAINS are bolting right now and they're usually the priority for OE. If you're on the 767 you won't be getting more than rotten sandwiches most legs. If you spend 8 months trying to live off of the catering you will be getting food poisoning. It's Russian Roulette..

Originally Posted by BYOB

^^^^
This is the truth. In my opinion the best catering we receive is catering out of Germany. HKG ranks right up there as the worst, along with anywhere else in China. IF you come here you’ll quickly learn (because 90% of your work life will be spent in Asia if you’re on the 747) what is good and what isn’t. For instance, crews are known for stopping at Popeyes in the terminal in HKG to buy their own food. Burgers in the catering out of ICN aren’t bad....but they aren’t great either. It’s just that they are the best thing that is catered out of ICN.

Forget the catering out of PVG, SZX, and anywhere else in China. You have to be starving to find it edible.


ANC catering isn’t bad, some complain about it but I don’t mind it personally. The problem is if you’re ANC based the company will go out of their way to keep you from touching your base until the end of your pattern because there is a good chance you will be owed heavy crew rest and be useless to them. But if they can keep you from touching base, then they can keep you moving and not having to pay you CRT while you sit useless to them in base.

Originally Posted by BYOB

^^^^
This is the truth. In my opinion the best catering we receive is catering out of Germany. HKG ranks right up there as the worst, along with anywhere else in China. IF you come here you’ll quickly learn (because 90% of your work life will be spent in Asia if you’re on the 747) what is good and what isn’t. For instance, crews are known for stopping at Popeyes in the terminal in HKG to buy their own food. Burgers in the catering out of ICN aren’t bad....but they aren’t great either. It’s just that they are the best thing that is catered out of ICN.

Forget the catering out of PVG, SZX, and anywhere else in China. You have to be starving to find it edible.


ANC catering isn’t bad, some complain about it but I don’t mind it personally. The problem is if you’re ANC based the company will go out of their way to keep you from touching your base until the end of your pattern because there is a good chance you will be owed heavy crew rest and be useless to them. But if they can keep you from touching base, then they can keep you moving and not having to pay you CRT while you sit useless to them in base.

Originally Posted by Whaledriver

Looks like we are lowering the bar AGAIN. Rumor is, no more test. Just breath and stand upright and you're good.

Originally Posted by cf105

Still doesn't mean everyone makes it through training and pass the check ride.