Air Stang 7

In all seriousness, this was the one thing I kept thinking about when I made my decision to not go to 00. If they don't offer a single occupancy room when even the lowest bottom feeders were at the time, what else will they not offer that everyone else does? I dodged a bullet and sincerely wish you folks there good luck in securing industry average or better.

Melit

You're so dramatic don't ya think?

Melit

They do it so you get use to living in a crash pad with ten dudes..

skypine27

I’m an exSkywest guy with friends still stuck there so occasionally I read some skywest threads. FYI: At FedEX new hires get....nothing. No paid hotel room at all, it’s entirely on your own. We also don’t pay for anything at all for the interview either. No hotel, no paid tickets, nothing.

Excargodog

Yeah. And second year FO pay is only$141/hr in the 757. $172 an hour in everything else? Plus $8 an hour for international flying? And over $3/hr per Diem.

Skywest starts paying those rates they have an excuse for not buying you a hotel room, which under their contract would cost them maybe $60 a night. Right now they don't.

The fact is, they aren't competitive with the regional competition. That's what counts.

amcnd

Half the complainers probably have no intention on working for SKW. If your family is in a SKW base and you want to work there, $60 isn’t going to make you go to Republic to commute to a outstation base on the east coast...

Excargodog

Nor will being a Skywest pilot guarantee you won't sit reserve in a crash pad in LGA as an FO, and for damn sure not as a junior captain.

Don't get me wrong, there is nothing about Skywest that is uniquely bad. Uniquely cheap, maybe, but not uniquely bad. It's just that they could play the SkyWEST geographic basing card a lot more effectively before so much of their flying moved east.

And the percentage of pilots that voted down the last proposal pretty much shows that even their own pilot employees realize the company is being uniquely cheap in the current competitive environment.

Locked in by their own seniority, the current pilots may want newbies to keep coming to Skywest anyway, to keep the place going at least long enough for them to get their upgrades and TPIC until they can get out, but they clearly know the money isn't really competitive any more.

2tofly

The double occupancy is only for the first 3 weeks. I’m 51 and did it and am retired Army so if anybody should hate it it would be me. You can purchase your own room and Skywest will contribute. Once I found out it was only for the first 3 weeks I sucked it up. You get your own room for FTD and sims. Unless I am wrong, I have been told at Delta you have to pay for your hotel the entire training footprint. Bottom line is this - I came to Skywest because it IS a good company ran by shrewd and successful business people. 46 years of operating proves that. I could have went anywhere but I chose here. I came here after 29 years of helicopter flying (20 mil and 9 civilian). I started in fixed wing in the mid 80s but there were NO jobs. If you don’t like it go somewhere else. I can say that the good here far outweighs the bad. We are ALL underpaid in this industry. Like working at a fast food joint for minimum wage, the regionals are meant to be a stepping stone to cargo, corporate, or the majors. If any of us were running this show we’d do the exact same thing. We are still recruiting and filling classes so until that well dries up why would management change? Like all publicly traded companies throughout the world they are trying to maximize PROFIT. I took $100K pay CUT to come here and I’m glad I did. It will get better. This is still the best job in the world. I’d rather do it for $40K than sit behind a keyboard ANY DAY.

Nordopilot

Now that's a realistic and positive attitude to have of the regional industry as a whole. Your CAs are lucky to fly with you.

RJDio

The regionals are a steeping stone, but it’s not the same stepping stone it was in years past flying 9-19 piston or turbo props. The current environment has provided the current generation of pilots maximum leverage to get paid top dollar (non legacy money). There is a shortage of pilots incoming, there is forward movement in the industry, you’re flying jet aircraft on 4 hour flights with first class. Don’t sell yourself short. This isn’t the 80’s, early 90’s or mid 2000’s. Now is the time to extract QOL and money from the regionals and set the bar higher for the next downturn. If you look closely, Skywest is making record profits.