FlyWinter

Some questions:

Skywest's ad banner (on this page) says that there are $40,000 in bonuses for Direct Entry Captains. However, on the website it only lists a bonus of $7500 if you have a CRJ or ERJ type rating (which I don't). Where are the supposed $40,000 in bonuses coming from?

How does Skywest expect to compete with other regionals that offer DECs full credit for all 121 experience (not just 10 years) and $100,000 in signing bonuses?

Lastly, how does vacation accrue? How much vacation does a 10 year pilot get? What's the max?

Thanks in advance!

UhhhKhakis

There were a few DEC’s in my class and they chose Skywest because of the domicile options. Money isn’t everything for a lot of those DEC’s.

hfrog

can’t speak to vacation accrual. As I understand it, The bonus pays out over 24 mos as follows:
$5K upon completing IOE
$5K at IOE + 6 mos
$10K at IOE + 12 mos
$20K at IOE + 24 mos

Wags808

I would be careful with SkyWest and signing any contracts. They are a pretty shiesty company overall and will nickel and dime every pilot they can, your schedule will be rough for a long time (20 year captains complain about how bad their schedules are,) crew support doesn't know what they're doing. If you are forced into being at a regional for a bit before finding a better higher paying company skip the bonus so you don't have to pay back whatever they give you (which will be taxed about 35%).

Utah

Vacation accrual is based off hours worked. Credit 100 hours and you'll earn about 5 hours of vacation time. The accrual rates vary with years of service. We bid for vacation quarterly. Currently we are bidding for June thru August. The bid for September thru November won't occur until July. Vacation is paid out at a rate between 2.5 and 4.2 hours per day. (reserves must use 4.2 hours). If you are awarded a week, you can cancel days you don't want. Let's say you only want 5 days of the award. You can then assign a daily vacation rate between 2.5 and 4.2. You'd use between 12.5 and 21 hours of vacation time. Those hours would be factored into your PBS bid for the month. Transfer domiciles, upgrade, or transition, and you lose your awarded vacation. You also can't take any vacation until after 12 months. It may not even start accruing until after 6. Unless you are senior in your domicile, you can forget about vacation over the summer or holidays. We have nowhere near enough vacation slots for the amount of vacation time accrued.

Looking at the seniority list, the amount of DEC hired over the past year is shockingly low. I figured the number would be much higher.

TALPAtalker

Highly inaccurate.

Skyhawk121

He's just upset because he got burned by one of those reimbursement contracts. He left before the funds were forgiven and got an invoice for leaving early. So he's spouting off any chance he gets thinking people are actually taking his stuff seriously.

ryapache7

What kind of flight benefits do you get as a pilot for you and your family? Do you have to pay for any of them?

RTROAjax

Depending on your base, some combination of AA, DL, UA, and AS standby. Also you get CASS-participating jumpseat privs. Yes, you'll pay yearly activation for each person on your benefits, and you'll pay individual listing fees for them too. Usually your own standby listings are free, or at most a small fee.

klondike

Can any SkyWest pilot here shed any light on how likely to hold BOI out of training, or how long to hold BOI
as a new hire.

Also, how many years to hold BOI as a Captain.

Thanks everyone in advance.