FNGFO

You may or may not get the entire fly right bonus, and it may not be because you didn’t adhere to SOP. A bunch of short trips will eat at your efficiency. The metric is set up to reward max time aloft and min fuel burn so you will be penalized if you beat fuel burn AND flight time on your legs.

The per diem might as well be income. I think I figured on spending $10 of my money per day. That’s not to say I was pounding $5 foot longs, but I might not spend anything for 3 days and then drop $30 on a meal.

Honestly, you’ll have hotel status and breakfasts should be free, catering will take care of breakfast if you leave before the hotel serves it, covers lunch almost every day, and you get one expensed meal per day almost no questions asked. You’re doing it wrong if you’re spending nearly anything on food, and you can have a large bottle of crew water catered to you if you don’t hit a stock locker and refill it at the FBO or hotel gym if it’s low.

That should keep you covered unless operational tempos have greatly tapered off. And I highly doubt that.

WiskeyTango

Mr smarty what you’re saying is not true. It’s near impossible to go through a whole week without spending a dime, as you claim. New guys don’t have Hotel status for those freebies, and I dont have status at Marriott or the random hotels we stay at (islands, hamptons). And have you never Airlined somewhere and needed to buy lunch at an airport? Or maybe catering not showing up and need to buy food?

That’s great if you never spend money on the road but it’s not realistic for most people. Especially new hires.

FNGFO

Actually, Mr. Lack's Reading Comprehension, what I said is that I planned to spend about $70 for a week's rotation. That's what $10/day comes out to. New hires will get status quite quickly, and you don't stay in the Hamptons or the Islands enough to make a hill of beans difference in the conversation. That's where the three days of not needing to spend my average allotment covers a meal on the rare occasion that I actually stayed in one of those places Most of the time you'll be staying at a Holiday Inn/Suites, Hampton, Hilton Garden as well as the occasional Hilton, Crowne or Sheraton.

Probably 80-90% of the time you'll have a comped breakfast supposing you don't leave before it's served. If you have to buy lunch at the airport on your travel days then expense it and have dinner catered for your trip, or order a really big lunch and save part of it for later. Really, this isn't hard. Between the catering, the expensed meals, the comped food at the hotels, the concierges with status and the stock lockers you'd have to work to spend much money on a rotation. Sure, the odd rotation happens where you have to spend more, but that's perhaps 2-3 times a year.

If you're spending $2-300 a trip because you're one of those guys who just won't live without Starbucks to start your day and a brew to end it then that's on you. A modicum of wit and ingenuity will keep you well fed for next to nothing on the road.

fooled2x

OK Smartie, I'm going to say something positive, so don't try to twist it. One of the advantages of our operation is the ability to use remote airports. Catering isn't always available, so I take the email from catering stating that catering isn't available and use that to expense the meal for the crew. They have been very good about that. As far as trying to get two meals out of one, be careful. Its one thing to order one whole pizza and eat the rest later, but getting two entrees will get get your expense questioned.

WiskeyTango

I wasn’t referring to you but ok.

All I’m saying is that the company does not cover 100% of your expenses on a trip. You’re gonna spend some per diem. Not all, some.

Stimpy the Kat

" Per Diem IS NOT compensation. "

30 years of listening to this ridiculous argument.

Funny, I have a six figure account that was built pretty much solely by depositing my Per Diem checks. Hmmm...Must be magic I guess, if it's not money/income/compensation. (?)

" But, it costs money to eat and per diem usually doesn't cover it.."

Well guess what? When I sit down and have a steak at home with a few beers it might cost me $15.00 or so. When I am on the road and sit down for a steak and a few beers it will probably cost me more like $30.00.

So, how much money did I just MAKE?

- At home, I just lost/spent $15.00. Period. Gone. Goodbye $15.00 ! No problem, gotta' eat right?

- On the road ( $50.00/day P.D. ), I just had a free steak dinner and pocketed an extra $20.00 to boot when they send me that check the following month.

Oh, and that check is TAX FREE. So, the 50 bucks for the day of per diem is the equivalent of approx. $65.00 of earned income.

Hmm. More pesky math...

To those who disagree with the above please remit all Per Diem Checks to:

The- "This IS NOT REAL MONEY Fund"
P.O. BOX - ZERO
Dopesville, Texas 33509




STK

P.S. - This type of lack of awareness of how money works is why I know several Pilots who make in excess of 300k per year...and have had to file Bankruptcy. Ridiculous.

Stimpy the Kat

Collin's English Dictionary - " A per diem is an amount of money that someone is given to cover their daily expenses while they are working."

Like , you know, an allowance given to you to help with coverage of expenses that is usually a benefit negotiated in your Contract.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Thesaurus.Com - compensation - "repayment; rectification"

- Synonyms for compensation:

- Allowance
- Benefit
- Coverage

Packrat

The real question is: Do you have to declare your Per Diem at tax time? I personally keep a log and it becomes a tax document for my preparer.

If your per diem is taxed, its income.

JMO127

This is a joke right?

SmarterThanYou

My wife makes north of $750K, can you come manage our...I mean her money for me? Sounds like you have it all figured out. 👍🏼