Please keep in mind this is just the tip of the ice-berg.

I am going to take a lot of time to write this, because I know there are probably still several people in my shoes who are thinking about doing what I have done, which has ended up becoming a 6 month WASTE of my life, and I won't be here much longer at all. I wish I could get out of here yesterday, wait I wish I never came here.

The crazy part about that, is that I would have never guessed why: The "Captain Mentor" program Pinnacle does leads you to ultimately NEVER upgrade. We have here in Memphis 3 Captain Mentors, 1 in Detroit, and 5 in Minneapolis. The deal is that you have to do "X" number of hours with a Captain "Mentor" in order to qualify for a reduced TT upgrade. You have to BID to fly with them, you can't trade unless you're off of reserve. So then take that into account and the fact that you have to do ALL 100+ hours in less than 60 days. It's literally impossible.

Now you come into my shoes here for a minute.... Really truely think about what I am trying to tell you and WHY. I am LEAVING ASAP, so I don't CARE about a freakin contract(for my own benefit, I wish the rest of 9E pilots the best!) and I am doing my very best to give you unbiased opinions/facts about the company. I am not trying to give a big "wah, look at me" I am trying to do my brothers and sisters in aviation a favor. If I had someone write this to me, I don't know if I still would have been so nieve to come here and leave such a goldmine of a job.

PNCL's guiding principles:

1) Never compromise safety

more like, never compromise Savings, with a cap S

2) Commitment to communication

Quite the contrary, no one EVER tells you anything, and if they say something, it's guaranteed wrong/incomplete information. Crew scheduling never calls me to notify me of changes to my schedule unless it means I'm picking UP a trip so it doesn't get cancelled. They will never call you to tell you the trip is cancelled, delayed, etc. I have not ONE TIME been called by crew scheduling to be told anything like this(apparently them calling you to tell you what's up is normal). Only calls for junior assignments, extentions, and training events that do not follow contract rules can be expected.

3) Financial responsibility

Because they won't pay you no matter how hard you TRY to work and they will TAKE money from you to make it an even more desperate struggle. When they say they want you to be financially responsible, what they REALLY want to say "live at your parents house" ... I live at my father's rental for $0/mo. So I have SOME pride left and maybe $30.

4) Ethics and Values

Why don't we have a contract yet? I won't touch this. But I DO KNOW I am part of the problem!

5) Respect for all pinnacle people

If this is true, why did 150 employees get dumped at MEM this month when we are severely/crtically understaffed at all bases?

6) Customer Service

Almost 75% of my passengers miss their connecting flights due to labor related delays, almost every time due to lack of staffing. I KNOW they missed because we arrived nearly an hour late, or more.

7) commitment to stakeholders

should be read "shareholders" and even then it's iffy.

Every single thing that I was counting on happening at Pinnacle has turned out to be a flat out lie. If you are looking to work here, I will give you the completely unbiased truth (to the best of my knowledge) or nothing at all. Just repond here and I will be glad to tell you why we treated so poorly and why the company has gone from #1 to last in line as far as performance.

Does everyone on here know that Pinnacle is literally paying people to recruit pilots? On the range of hundreds to thousands of dollars???? Why is it that since January I have gone from 1350++ on the seniority list to just over 1200? So if you hear a pinnacle guy/gal trying to coax you to "come on over, it's greaaat" just remember "you can check out anytime you'd like, but you can NEVER leave!" The past month I have flown with several different captains. Everytime I fly with a new one, their seniority # is around 100-300, sometimes as low as 40's. Maybe two of the several captains were above 300? No kidding.

I really should have listened to everyone on this forum about the warnings, and my friends at my old job for their warnings. Just to get it out of the way: YOU WERE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT, and I'm sorry I didn't listen. I don't know how many 9E guys/gals here are going to back me up on this post because I'm bashing the company, yada yada, but you know what?

I am ashamed of working here.

 

where you going next? cuz if i was a betting man, and i am, id bet that your comments can and will apply to your next airline. sorry bro im sure everyone here (except skywest) feels your pain

 

Not ALL of them, trust me there's happy(ier) regional pilots out there. There's definitely happier mainline, cargo, etc pilots out there, so that's bogus. I know there are better places. Everything is a two sided sword. It can cut both ways, so take my opinions for exactly what they are. Opinions. You can't reason with the facts though.

 

I escaped from there last month. It was a waste of 6 months of life for sure. I was always agitated and angry. I hated work and flying. Pinnacle will suck the life out of you.

 

I can't tell you how many people have said that.

 

I know exactly what you mean.

 

THEPROFESSIONALPILOT which flight school did you go to? Jet U?

 

Yeah, man, Pinnacle is one of the worst places you can work. It's been like that for years; I thought everybody knew that. A quick search on any aviation forum will tell you the same.
There's really no reason to go there unless you already have 3000+ hours and can be guaranteed a quick upgrade.
But even then, I wouldn't go to Pinnacle because regionals always lie about how fast their upgrades will be and then you're stuck working at a craphole.

 

Sounds like that's what he went there for. That's what I'm looking into also. I know you guys ***** and moan about how bad it is, but I personally can't imagine it being any worse than flying on demand cargo.

 

No, he didn't. Otherwise he wouldn't be talking about using the captain mentor program to upgrade. He must be relatively low time to be trying to use it.

As for myself, I was hired at 9E a year ago with 1100 TT. I'm not going to do the captain mentor program thing because it wouldn't really help me, for various reasons... scheduling included.

But let me tell you all how my life has been this past year in case anybody gives half a shizz...

Training was not that hard. I had a brain fart on sim 10 and had to do it over, but no big deal. Checkride also no big deal. OE was good, no probs there. I live in base, so that makes things better QOL wise.

Every CA I have flown with here has been great, and they have all taught me a thing or five. I have thoroughly enjoyed flying with everyone in this pilot group. FAs too, for that matter.

Also: due to things like luck, timing, DTW base, and whatever... I never sat ONE SINGLE DAY of reserve. Never. CS has called me maybe 4 times for a JA, and I simply didn't answer the phone. Never been called at the hotel. Never been extended. I'm now half way up the seniority list for FOs in DTW. Yes, luck and timing plays a part in this but I'm just telling you guys how it is for me.

One more trip and I'm off probation. I make enough money to somehow pay the bills and have a little left over to have fun with. I've had 17 days off for the past 2 months. I came here from Mesa, so I can appreciate what I have.

Could things be better... of course. I'd like to get paid more for what I do. And hopefully I will soon. Could things be worse... absolutely. And they WERE worse before I came here. And with all the things going on here I can see why 9E would be an employer to avoid right now. But it isn't hell, at least for me.

That's my 2 cents...

OK, enough typing.