Skywest Soft Landings approved

Rodger Wilco

Rodger Wilco

Well-Known Member
It was just announced that Skywest's Soft Landings Program has been approved allowing pilots to receive longevity credit for previous experience with other 121 carriers.

Up to 10 years can be "transferred". Will not count for towards your bidding seniority or jump seat seniority but does count for 401k, profit sharing, and user/vacation pay.

So, if I understand this correctly, a new hire with 10 years at any other 121 carrier could be hired at SkyWest today, upgrade in 10 months, and be making 10 CA pay in his/her first year?!

Anyone know the facts on this?
 
That's correct and to clarify, you can only apply the time from one previous 121 carrier, not combined carriers. So if you flew at regional ABC for 4 years, and regional XYZ for 3 years, you can carry over 4 years of experience towards longevity.
 
wheelsup said:
Why would you WANT to stop this?!? WTF is wrong with pilots?

"I don't want anyone else getting paid more than me"
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While I may not agree with everything management does here I am all for this policy. Any other industry I would be compensated for my experience. Here, it's "Pay your dues and shut up, I don't care if your last airline went under. I've been here longer than you"
So what if some new guy makes more than me, he's feeling it way more than I am. Besides, my schedule is marginally better than his is.
 
Ayork62493 said:
While I may not agree with everything management does here I am all for this policy. Any other industry I would be compensated for my experience. Here, it's "Pay your dues and shut up, I don't care if your last airline went under. I've been here longer than you"
So what if some new guy makes more than me, he's feeling it way more than I am. Besides, my schedule is marginally better than his is.
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My new hire sim partner now makes more than me....

....Which is good because in this area we all need the money!

Meanwhile... Out the window.

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk
 
ppragman said:
Why didn't the sky west pilot's union step in to stop this!? Oh wait...
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Funny. I get what you're getting at. But serious answer. 3 reasons...

1) No union (I know you know)
2) SAPA are the ones that drafted it
3) Expressjet (ALPA) signed the exact same policy a couple days before Skywest did. (No riding coat tails. It's been a done deal for a while, VP of Flight Ops didn't want to sign it, until after Expressjet got the same deal).
 
In an informal online poll, the majority of SkyWest pilots are in favor of the soft landings 2.0 policy. There were some vocal complainers, but once someone posted a poll, the complainers seem to have quieted down.
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Zondaracer said:
In an informal online poll, the majority of SkyWest pilots are in favor of the soft landings 2.0 policy. There were some vocal complainers, but once someone posted a poll, the complainers seem to have quieted down.
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Except less than 150/4500 seems a little inaccurate.
 
word302 said:
Except less than 150/4500 seems a little inaccurate.
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True, hence why I mentioned that it was an informal poll. The sample and response sizes were very small. I haven't really talked to anyone who has been against this policy but a large sample poll would be interesting to see.
 
Zondaracer said:
True, hence why I mentioned that it was an informal poll. The sample and response sizes were very small. I haven't really talked to anyone who has been against this policy but a large sample poll would be interesting to see.
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Meh. I'm not exactly for it. I see it as a way to try and poach from other airlines. We should have negotiated something in return for it. I find it annoying that SAPA is writing policy like this with 0 input from the pilot group.
 
B767 said:
Funny. I get what you're getting at. But serious answer. 3 reasons...

1) No union (I know you know)
2) SAPA are the ones that drafted it
3) Expressjet (ALPA) signed the exact same policy a couple days before Skywest did. (No riding coat tails. It's been a done deal for a while, VP of Flight Ops didn't want to sign it, until after Expressjet got the same deal).
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"We didn't ride coat tails."

*agrees to something a union accomplished a few days after*
 
Yeah, I do not find it offensive. "Poaching" employees @word302 from other companies is a harsh way of putting it. I would think every pilot would be for more flexibility and ability to make lateral moves within the industry. When I switched companies my family and friends could not even process that I was starting all over at the bottom of the ladder with no credit given for my years of previous experience.

How is this not advantageous for everyone? The way I see it the more people Jr. to me the better, I really don't care if they make more.

It is my understanding that SAPA developed the policy but INC wanted both SKW and ExpressJet on board with it.
 
Dexter said:
"We didn't ride coat tails."

*agrees to something a union accomplished a few days after*
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Did you not read what I wrote? I'll do it again...

VP of flight ops wouldn't sign until Expressjet got the same deal.

Not signed it BECAUSE Expressjet got the same deal. WOULDN'T sign UNTIL they got the same.
 
Rodger Wilco said:
Yeah, I do not find it offensive. "Poaching" employees @word302 from other companies is a harsh way of putting it. I would think every pilot would be for more flexibility and ability to make lateral moves within the industry. When I switched companies my family and friends could not even process that I was starting all over at the bottom of the ladder with no credit given for my years of previous experience.

How is this not advantageous for everyone? The way I see it the more people Jr. to me the better, I really don't care if they make more.

It is my understanding that SAPA developed the policy but INC wanted both SKW and ExpressJet on board with it.
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Recruiting is not my job, it is managements. You do realize that when hiring slows we get more money? Handing the company a recruiting tool with nothing in return after having 1% shoved down our throats by the company and SAPA leaves a foul taste in my mouth. We have no leverage because we are still filling classes somehow. This just prolongs that lack of leverage.
 
No one else sees how this undercuts literally every other pilot collective bargaining agreement? "Ohh you've been at Brand X for 10 years? Come over to this non-union carrier and keep your pay!"

Remember - if they economy decides to poop the bed and Skywest decides that they've had enough of this they can take it away whenever they want. If they decide that they've had enough of the student council grumbling they can decide to cut everyone's pay in half if they want. Tell me - how are relations between Skywest Inc and the Acey / Jetlink pilot union (I believe those guys are ALPA)? So if they decide to shutter what's left of Expressjet and ASA they'll just roll the pilots into this new - non Union shop right?

I mean - I'm all for being able to transfer your longevity, don't get me wrong...but this is definitely a "be careful what you wish for scenario." Times are good right now, and this could be a good thing for a lot of people - in particular there are a bunch of PenAir guys who will likely benefit from this, but times won't always be good.

I remember a time when pilots from gojet lived in perpetual obloquy because they went to GoJet while TSA was screwing people over.

This is why we can't have nice things - we're all temporarily embarrassed millionaires who think we are these amazing cockpit executives - if this happened with longshoremen there'd probably have been beatings already.
 
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