Safety

This is true, they are bleeding good pilots because they are not what they seem and will make promises that sound wonderful. It's 100% "too good to be true". I cannot give a stronger warning.

Stay away.

Javichu

Still and improvement in quality of life compared to other jobs out there. Sad but true


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Metroaviator

With regard to the last few posts...is someone willing to provide specific details as to what's happening with Boutique that pilots are leaving? I'm sure members on this board are appreciative of the warnings (I certainly am) but generalized statements of "stay away...they don't stand by promises" really don't help. There are numerous people following this thread that are considering applying and others that are currently in the candidate pool for Boutique. Some are looking to leave other flying jobs and some just trying to get their first job. Every person is different in their wants and needs from an employer and their future career goals. But it's the details that will help someone make an individual, educated decision as to what is best for them. So please....What specifically are the problems there? What promises made have been broken?

TSAwithBagpipes

You'll have to dig into this thread to get your answers. A few of us have laid it out pretty well, but it gets buried in the back and forth. There was a fair amount of attrition the past few months with pilots moving onto "bigger and better" things (regional first year pay has almost eclipsed the captain salary at BTQ [with bonuses]). As for promises, I can only think of a couple that were broken:

-Among the folks that left, the disgusting crew houses were a contributing factor (to varying degrees) in a few of our decisions to leave. We were all told "cleaning services" would begin to regularly clean the crew houses, but that never happened. They're filthy. I'm not trying to be crass, but the same skid marks from 8 months past were still clinging to a certain toilet in a certain crew house. I'm sure cleaner crew houses wouldn't change our leaving, but I know for a fact a few of us would have stayed longer.

-A good handful of DFW pilots signed seat fill contracts and were sent to get King Air types under the pretense DFW would get King Air flying. That never happened, so now the typed pilots are regularly sent to DEN to cover the King Air flying there. I'm talking senior guys with sh***y schedules. I was sitting at home collecting guarantee on the PC12 while they flew stand ups in DEN and added 12 months to their training contract ($20k+ for ATP-less pilots). Not really BTQ's fault, but it's still a raw deal.

If it's your first gig or you're leaving instructing for BTQ, I'm sure it's a step up. There's an earlier post of mine that I feel was very fair to BTQ. I think I covered the high and low points.

It seems like the CEO truly cares about the pilots as ideas that roll out are truly quality of life oriented. We had a strictly continuous duty overnight schedule, but that changed as pilots complained and/or called in fatigued. The DEN schedule was absolutely brutal before the schedule changes were made(it's still awful).

TLDR: Great time builder. Good for pilots with families that want to make 60-70k a year and be at home every other night or better.

Not good for germophobes or people that hate flying in weather and being hot in the summer.

Metroaviator

Thank you TSA. You are right, a lot gets lost in the back and forth of these threads.

I appreciate the response

BravoPapa

Good post.

Quick question, say flying out of PKD I see they go to Muscle Shoals, up to Nashville I think, and then reverse. If you lived in Atlanta it appears you would be home every night like you said. What time do you start and what time are you normally through on a run like that?

Toddzilla

Feel free to PM me if people need more info on 4b

Safety

Used to be like that, then they lost too many pilots and started double shifts. Expect flight/duty days right to the max if things go well and WX is ok. You will not be home, you will stay at an outstation until your rotation is complete.

Toddzilla

Same in PDX right now, despite being "overstaffed" for the last few months. Not sure how a base is overstaffed when there is zero reserve coverage for PICs for 17 days in August. Something about "efficiency." Four day trips with three days away from home in a row were the norm for August, and September has some of them as well. The way the per diem is structured, you will only make roughly 50% in per diem what you would get at every single regional airline for the same trip length/time away from home. The schedule is more like a normal airline now, just without proper per diem. Insurance is still great, however, which is important to a lot of people.

The two middle days of the shift are 14 hour days when the plane isn't broken and the weather is good. Nowhere to put your feet up or close your eyes for a bit during the afternoon sit in PDX, either, so hopefully you like awkwardly standing around for four hours.

V1VRV2setleft

With sweeping budget cuts across the board, Boutique Air's days are probably numbered just like most other EAS operators.

The company jobs website has not been updated yet, massive reductions in benefits have been announced.

If hiring resumes and anybody is seriously considering locking themselves into a training contract with Boutique Air, do yourself a favor and make a trip out to any base or outstation and talk with the line pilots in person.

Recent reviews posted to sites like Glassdoor paint a better picture of what to expect than you will find in this thread.