Quote:
Originally Posted by GrummanCT
100% agree. We are the lucky ones to have these "perks", and I'm hesitant to say perks when in my opinion they should be standard for all professional flight crews in business aviation. It's pretty sad that there are business pilots never getting better then the la Quinta Inn, having restricted by on rental cars, and a fixed/limited meal allowance or worse yet, per diem that works out to about$50 bucks a day. A lot of these cases are due to cheap owners and penny pinching departments, but you can't ignore the fact that those who have taken advantage for years by staying at JW's/Ritz when full service Marriott's are next door for $500 less a night, and uncontrolled food spending well beyond what you would do on your own dime have absolutely contributed to these loss of "perks" by many in our profession.
And I don't think nosid stays at the same hotels as the jet owner. Even he knows that is against best practices...it's just the attitude of, if it's good enough for him, it's good enough for me. If your boss is cool with that, great, but it's not the norm, and I don't think most flight departments would find that attitude as being in touch with reality.
Grum, I want to make a different approach. I want to take a leap of faith. I want to give you the benefit of the doubt, and hope you would not get a pilot fired for enforcing the contract, I want to believe I misunderstood your intentions, and confused your young energeitc flexibility with malicious brown nosing. I sincerely hope I was wrong. And if I am, my bad. My apologizes.
For the overall Karma thing, is better me being wrong than you being vicious. I can apologize if I am wrong, and I hope I am. You would not be able to fix being vicious.
(RI830 you got to be proud of me by now, thank you for the intervention earlier, sometimes are the little steps
...)
As per the hotels: Not the same hotel as the boss, but the same level of hotel. The "good for the boss good for us" is expected, if not demanded, from both us and the boss, for reasons of safety and security, especially when fly internationally; I don't think you can fully appreciate that yet, until you start flying certain geopolitical scenarios. But do keep it in mind for the future.
Our boss would not want to miss a day, because a pilot got sick sleeping on a mattress infested by bugs, or because the pilots documents got stollen from the room.
My very first corporate job was in a turboprop, and the owner always wanted me with him at the Ritz, or similar, even if I did not like staying together. I was younger and naive back then, I remember asking him to put me in a cheaper hotel and give me the difference, it was he who explained me the importance of traveling safe and secure. Time is money, and he could not waste it.
Nevertheless I did like the Ritz.
For the dinners part, I spend easily $80+ for a dinner for myself on the job, but I do spend more then that when I dine on my money, and I do eat out 3+ times a week when I don't work, so I am actually refraining myself when on the road.
I don't do chain food and I don't drink cheap wine, life is too short.
My house is paid off, and I have no kids, so I enjoy my lifestyle.
As far as the waiting in the car for the last minute allowed by the contract, as I already explained, it was for a 135 jet job.
I quit that job as soon as my training contract elapsed, and went back working as a CFI for a while, because the treatment was so bad; mine was a form of retaliation, and under the same circumstances I would do it again. It is not the only job I have quit without a better one aligned yet, but one way or the other, it always worked out fine.
By quitting that job, and not taking jobs where I can maintain my standards of living, which are high, I am contributing to keep perks in the profession, for you too. Please do the same. I understand, you want to feel like a team player, but you have to learn how do demand and respect better contracts, foster not by servile attitude but professionalism; only like that you can raise the bar for yourself and for everybody else. If another pilot needs to swap days, no problem, but if the owner is asking, he must know that can't be the norm.
You want to fly on your days off without additional recompensation? Fine. Even if I think you are doing it wrong, knock yourself out and have fun, but please don't get other pilots in trouble for saying no.
I hope I misunderstood you about that.
Grum, I am saying this from the bottom of my heart and without hostile intentions. Forgive me if I was wrong.
Let's see if 7x has another joke to make.
Before I forget, here it is