Blue Streak?
- Thread starter pilot4500
- Start date
PGT
Well-Known Member
BlueStreak
New Member
CRJDriver
Well-Known Member
Ask BobDDuck! He's a F/O for PSA.
BobDDuck
Island Bus Driver
Jeremy can chime in as well as he is seeing the crappy side of scheduling while sitting reserve.
It's a ok company at a really bad time. We currently have about 50 jets, mostly -200s with some -700s. The flying is almost all east coast based with most of it being CLT out and backs. We do some work out of PHL, DCA and we do LGA a little bit. Most stage lengths are less then an hour which means a lot of up and down all day to get any credit what so ever.
We are a wholly owned of US Air which means, while we are relatively stable we aren't really in line for any growth. Right now the upgrade is at 5 years due to this lack of growth, managment trying to run an airline with too few crews (we are short about 30 CAs and FOs) and furloughed "mainline" guys still coming in as J4J captains.
(little history on the J4J thing as it plays a major roll in life here. PSA used to operate Dorks. They company that made them was going out of business and there were threats made that the airline would just die away if they didn't move on to another fleet type. Apparently Skyway has managed some how so it is likely the threads were idle. Anyhow, USAir made an offer to PSA and Piedmont (actually, they hadn't merged with Allegheny yet so the offer was made to them too) to provide CRJs in exchange for allowing mainline to staff 50% of both the left and right seats with furloughed mainline guys. The 3 wholly owns *were* standing strong against the deal when the PSA MEC made a backdoor agreement with mainline to take the jets and the furloughed mainline guys. Later on when the 700s came the MEC again screwed the line pilots and allowed the J4J pilots to have slotted bidding so some of them bid more senior then true PSA captains with more seniority at PSA and US Airways. The problem now is that the list of furloughed pilots that could come to PSA was exhausted and we were down to about 70 J4J guys left. Then, about 5 months ago some how mainline decided that the guys at Mid Atlantic were all of the sudden mainline furloughed pilots too and hence had J4J rights. The problem is that some of these guys had been FOs at PDT and went to Mid Altantic and now are in the left seat here. It's leading to a bit of anger among the PSA crews.)
Our management is border line incompetent. They were ok at running a 25 aircraft turbo prop airline but can't manage 50 jets. They do things to save a penny that end up costing $100. They purposely keep scheduled bad (Max 15 days off EVER) and make 80% of the trips uncommutable. There is always talk about Tempe Management seeing how bad this place is run and cleaning house, but the fact of the matter is that as long as we turn profit (and we do) they don't care. Also, our management routinely disregards the contract or changes their inturpritation of it with out warning.
Hotels are marginal to poor. They put is in mostly holiday inn level places which is fine, but in bad areas. We will drive 40 minutes from the airport some times and pass multiple acceptable places on the way to go stay at a hotel just off an interstate with only 1 restaurant nearby.
All that said, it isn't a terrible place to be. The pay is not great for FOs (22/29/32/35) but is ok for CAs with it starting at 58 and topping out in the mid 90s. Our non rev benefits are pretty good (free for spouse/kids and $15 a direction for parents plus you get 8 zonal buddy passes a year). The health care is excellent (better then Mainlines actually) and the 401K match is up to 5% (I think) but the best part about it is it only takes 3 years to vest (go on.... take the money and run!)
Most of the people are awesome and you will have fun being here. As to the high mins... when they actually hire people they hire much lower then that if they have more multi. I got on at 850 and a bunch of twin and I have seen as low as 450 with 300 multi.
Any questions let me know.
EDIT: BlueStreak... when were you here? I hope you're in a better place now.
It's a ok company at a really bad time. We currently have about 50 jets, mostly -200s with some -700s. The flying is almost all east coast based with most of it being CLT out and backs. We do some work out of PHL, DCA and we do LGA a little bit. Most stage lengths are less then an hour which means a lot of up and down all day to get any credit what so ever.
We are a wholly owned of US Air which means, while we are relatively stable we aren't really in line for any growth. Right now the upgrade is at 5 years due to this lack of growth, managment trying to run an airline with too few crews (we are short about 30 CAs and FOs) and furloughed "mainline" guys still coming in as J4J captains.
(little history on the J4J thing as it plays a major roll in life here. PSA used to operate Dorks. They company that made them was going out of business and there were threats made that the airline would just die away if they didn't move on to another fleet type. Apparently Skyway has managed some how so it is likely the threads were idle. Anyhow, USAir made an offer to PSA and Piedmont (actually, they hadn't merged with Allegheny yet so the offer was made to them too) to provide CRJs in exchange for allowing mainline to staff 50% of both the left and right seats with furloughed mainline guys. The 3 wholly owns *were* standing strong against the deal when the PSA MEC made a backdoor agreement with mainline to take the jets and the furloughed mainline guys. Later on when the 700s came the MEC again screwed the line pilots and allowed the J4J pilots to have slotted bidding so some of them bid more senior then true PSA captains with more seniority at PSA and US Airways. The problem now is that the list of furloughed pilots that could come to PSA was exhausted and we were down to about 70 J4J guys left. Then, about 5 months ago some how mainline decided that the guys at Mid Atlantic were all of the sudden mainline furloughed pilots too and hence had J4J rights. The problem is that some of these guys had been FOs at PDT and went to Mid Altantic and now are in the left seat here. It's leading to a bit of anger among the PSA crews.)
Our management is border line incompetent. They were ok at running a 25 aircraft turbo prop airline but can't manage 50 jets. They do things to save a penny that end up costing $100. They purposely keep scheduled bad (Max 15 days off EVER) and make 80% of the trips uncommutable. There is always talk about Tempe Management seeing how bad this place is run and cleaning house, but the fact of the matter is that as long as we turn profit (and we do) they don't care. Also, our management routinely disregards the contract or changes their inturpritation of it with out warning.
Hotels are marginal to poor. They put is in mostly holiday inn level places which is fine, but in bad areas. We will drive 40 minutes from the airport some times and pass multiple acceptable places on the way to go stay at a hotel just off an interstate with only 1 restaurant nearby.
All that said, it isn't a terrible place to be. The pay is not great for FOs (22/29/32/35) but is ok for CAs with it starting at 58 and topping out in the mid 90s. Our non rev benefits are pretty good (free for spouse/kids and $15 a direction for parents plus you get 8 zonal buddy passes a year). The health care is excellent (better then Mainlines actually) and the 401K match is up to 5% (I think) but the best part about it is it only takes 3 years to vest (go on.... take the money and run!)
Most of the people are awesome and you will have fun being here. As to the high mins... when they actually hire people they hire much lower then that if they have more multi. I got on at 850 and a bunch of twin and I have seen as low as 450 with 300 multi.
Any questions let me know.
EDIT: BlueStreak... when were you here? I hope you're in a better place now.