Sun Country Benefits
 

Hey folks,

I'm considering Sun Country as a possible destination. I've read through much of this forum and there seems to be a lot of skepticism towards how SY handles new hires. It seems that the company is making positive strides to improve this. I understand that I could potentially be on reserves for a year and that commuting to MSP can be difficult. I've considered both of those and feel comfortable moving forward with the process. I'm interested to see the specific benefits the company offers. I found some info on this website: Sun Country Benefits ? Become a Sun Country Pilot

Some of the highlights that I've found
- $52/hr with 75 hours guaranteed
- 401k, 2% DC, 6% match
- 100% deadhead and cancelation pay
- KCM and CASS
- Average $2.80 per diem
- Space available travel (non-rev)

I read previously that the company didn't pay for hotels or give you per diem in training. That changed to 60 days of hotels, not perfect but an improvement. Are they giving trainees per diem now too?

Also, what does Sun Country offer for their non-rev privileges? Do you get any sort of buddy passes or can you designate someone as a companion? The Sun Country website says, "Sun Country space available and positive space reduced rate flight benefits for employee and their eligible travelers beginning on date of hire."

You sound like sun country management trying to entice people to come here, good job. Probably best you didn't advertise anything beyond the first year.

Gods call! No per diem. You are based in MSP and not on a trip. You don’t qualify for per diem. Per diem 24/7 during training would cost more than the minuscule 4 dollar pay raise... Go fish. The pay raise is $3600, not a big raise.

Definitely not management of anything just trying to get the entire picture and see what their benefits are. What’s your take on the years beyond?

Our non-rev benefits are pretty industry standard.

SY Pilots get themselves, Spouse (Married, Travel Partner or Designee), Dependent Children, Non‐Dependent Children, Parents or Parents‐in‐Law (up to 4, any combination), a Companion, and Buddy passes.

Employee, spouse, children, and parents get SY non-rev as well as ZED access.

The companion is unique in that they must be accompanied by the employee, and on SY metal only. You don't have to designate any one particular person, in fact you can have a different companion every time. You just have to travel with them.

You get 24 one-way buddy pass segments per year. They're about $60/each way after taxes and everything.

You get unlimited 25% off full-fare positive space tickets, and one 50% off positive space ticket per year.

Well, I was simply referring to pay/benefits after the first year. As in, every other airline pays 2-4 times more than sunny.
As far as the future of sunny, there is optimism among a few, but we have yet to see any real gains.

2-4 times more ?:rolleyes: doesn’t our pay top out at $202 an hour. Tell me what airline you can make $404-$808 an hour and sign me up.

Everyone sh$& talks this airline for pay. Get over it we have 32-33 planes and 300 pilots. Your never gonna earn a Mainline salary. If your unhappy go work for Delta or another carrier that pays more , you can commute and spend 8-10 days at home a month. Or maybe go get a degree in economics so you can learn that financially this airline can never support your “Mainline Salary” dreams.

You must not be a pilot at Sunny. I have never flown with anyone who expects "mainline salary" to become a reality here. I hope you're nowhere near the negotiating committee - I would hate to count on you to ask Apollo for us to get paid at the same level as our peers.

Yeah just about every pilot I fly with who bitc$&s about pay has always complained that we are underpaid and should be paid the same as Delta/United/Southwest.

So when you say being paid at the same level as our peers who are you talking about? Spirit? JetBlue? Southwest? Are they not 3-4 times the size of us? I would think on the books them being able to pay those salaries would be a lot more feasible than Sun Country affording it. I don’t care if it’s owned by a multi billion dollar investment firm, they have no interest in writing out free checks to increase our pay.

The airline needs to be a lot more profitable and grow in order for it to sustain higher paid wages. I’m not saying I’m with management and want sh$tty pay no, I’m just being realistic. No one forced you to come here and you knew when you signed up for the job that the wages were lower than our competitors. I appreciate your enthusiasm and cries for higher pay, id love a higher paycheck too. But stop acting like this is a real airline that operates within the same environment as the rest because I can assure you, operationally and financially it is far from it.

And no don’t worry I won’t be on any negotiating board.

I would put Sunny in the peer group of Frontier, Spirit and Allegiant. Jblu, Southwest & Alaska are a cut above those IMO.

Id hope theyd get as close to those contracts to stay in the game. Recent FO pay increase would suggest that more is coming...

I don't see what difference it makes what the "size" of the airline is. A 737 requires 2 pilots to fly. How the penny pinchers divy up the loot is for them to decide. I would think that running a smaller company there would be less overhead costs, but at the same time I realize there are fixed costs that can be spread out amongst having more planes flying. Jude said we offer a product better than the typical ULCC, so why not get paid better?
Your precious top end CA pay should be between 247 & 284 not 202. But I'm not an economics major either.

Anyone have a list of the carriers that Sunny as available via ID90's? Specifically overseas carriers

The list of carriers is over two pages of small print. As for international stuff to/from the US is basically United because Delta and AA are not on the list. There are a lot of overseas carriers but without knowing which region you are talking it's hard to be more specific.

Most of the overseas carriers affiliated with SCA are via myidtravel. Condor, Austrian, Icelandair, Vueling, SAS...there are a few others. Austrian has been fantastic, i use them often...Also Iceland Air has been very accommodating too. I don’t know any overseas carriers affiliated with us that use ID90.

Virgin Atlantic to UK has worked well.

I should have been more clear. More on the Asia side. But thank you for the answers everyone

So, a pilot could non-rev with his wife, 3 kids, 2 parents, 2 parents-in-law, and an additional companion? Am I understanding that right? If that is true, it is a really good deal.

Industry standard?! :eek: Far from it.

They charge parents a non rev fee to fly on our own metal. Only spouse gets to fly "free". Pretty damn worthless if you ask me.

They charge parents a non rev fee to fly on our own metal. Only spouse gets to fly "free". Pretty damn worthless if you ask me.[/QUOTE]
Is it a fee per flight or yearly fee? How much?

It’s per leg. It’s not a good deal/benefit. Most often it’s more expensive then buying a confirmed seat. To use our 50% off confirmed tickets for wife and kids you also have to buy a confirmed ticket and travel with them. Once again not a good benefit. We used to be able to give our friends a confirmed ticket for 25% off. That is now gone. Once again a good benefit that was taken away. Travel benefits are way behind the industry norm.

They gotta pay imputed income tax for the IRS. I think all airlines make the parent pay.


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No they don’t. Didn’t even charge me at the regionals when I had delta and United Benefits. Mom and Dad could fly wherever they wanted and pay $0...

imputed income is for a “companion traveler” , if you are not married you can add a friend to your benefits.

If it was international of course a small international tax

The most overlooked part of this discounted ticket "benefit" is that the 50 or 25% discount is taken off of the highest available fare. Not even remotely worth the hassle!

Good point. I forgot to mention that. It’s hard to use a “benefit” when you feel like you are being taken advantage of.

Sy id90
 

Wow! That socks for the id90 partnerships that sun country has. Not generous at all really. Go Southwest!

They have been enough to get me all over the world. Did you happen to start the "whats there latest" thread?