PI merger

[Dont call me Shirley]

Bin Stretcher is a good one!


You're also correct that working for an airline was considered a Cut above working elsewhere.

North Carolina friends have told how back in the day, they would write PI credit union check to an store they'd never been to before and the clerk would say "Shoot, you work for Piedmont, I know your check is good."

 

[WHISPERJETT]

North Carolina friends have told how back in the day, they would write PI credit union check to an store they'd never been to before and the clerk would say "Shoot, you work for Piedmont, I know your check is good."

THEY MUST HAVE BEEN "A Scale"....not the poverty (welfare) level "B Scale"....

 

[wings396]

THEY MUST HAVE BEEN "A Scale"....not the poverty (welfare) level "B Scale"....

While I agree that "B" scale was a bad idea, PI wasn't the only one using it. I think that our friends over at
AA invented it, and others followed along to keep wages down. I know that US also had it in place, but I'm not sure of what others put it into play. Maybe some people from the other airlines can chime in here.

 

[700UW]

US also had a "C"scale as the four IBT ramp stations were making less than the non-union stations, BOS, BUF, PIT and PHL.

And dont forget to send the new hire to find the chock hammers too!

One thing I liked about PI is we got to fly one jump seat a year on each plane type if you wanted. I remember when I worked Air Cargo in TPA we had the F28 Simulator and we got to play with it a few times and when I went to Utility got to go up on a few training flights on the F28 in the middle of the night, now those were fun.

 

[does this plane go to paris]

US also had a "C"scale as the four IBT ramp stations were making less than the non-union stations, BOS, BUF, PIT and PHL.

And dont forget to send the new hire to find the chock hammers too!

One thing I liked about PI is we got to fly one jump seat a year on each plane type if you wanted. I remember when I worked Air Cargo in TPA we had the F28 Simulator and we got to play with it a few times and when I went to Utility got to go up on a few training flights on the F28 in the middle of the night, now those were fun.

When I was a youngster, I had the opporunity of working for DL or US. DL had just merged with WA and AL had merged with PS and was in the process of merging with PI. The thought process was that DL had great Customer Service and that the new US with the combined 3 airlines would draw off the PI Customer Service attidude, the passenger base would be from the northeast and the anchor on the west coast would be PS.

I remember so well the fight over IBT and the turmoil that was created. On the ramp, when a flight came in from one of the four above cities, the bags were all neatly stacked with the handles on the opposite side just to make the job harded to unload the aircraft. There would be "nice" little notes with reminders that it didn't have to be this way and all we had to do was sign the cards and join IBT. Being in a west coast city, these were heady times and the majority of the station was PS, a lot of senior AL folks came out west and slowly the PI folks came in. There was a culture clash of distinct airlines and in my personal opinion it failed because managment was trying to impose what worked in the northeast on two proud airlines. I see this in the current merger that it worked for HP so it must work now.

(UN)Fortunately, I was laid off and got a job with WN. I've spoken with a lot of PS and PI folks and they see the Customer Service orientation that WN stresses and they miss that family spirit and makiing the job fun. just my .02 cents.

 

[700UW]

Wasnt the ramp at PSA IBT? I know maintenance was.

 

[nycbusdriver]

Tempe was certianly worried about culture. There was even a VP of culture.

I had forgotten about our VP of Culture. What an absurd concept. Was that just a way to bring someone on board at an outrageous rate of pay with a multi-year contract, then eliminate the silly position and pay off millions for the contract as well as a nice pension and first class positive space pass privileges for life?

 

[skyflyr69]

Was not online yesterday, so I could not post this, a tad disappointed on one else noted the date. Twenty years since the last flight of the speedbird. Many who were around back then remember PI with great fondness, many think the USAir's takeover was rather hamhanded.
Some now say they hadn't seen nothing yet.

Piedmont Airlines. 1985 Air Transport World "Airline of the Year". Route of the Pacemakers.
A damn good airline.

Remember Piedmont Punch? Goody's headache powder. The little speedbird chocolates.
Hot towel and free wine in coach on Calif flights. Launch order for the Boeing 737-400.
767 LAX-CLT/BWI.

Ah, the memories. OMG, 20 years does fly by fast.

GET over it , IT'S OVER. Man up and get your career back on track. look forward, time for airline worker "tea party"
:angry:

 

[drifterreno]

Was not online yesterday, so I could not post this, a tad disappointed on one else noted the date. Twenty years since the last flight of the speedbird. Many who were around back then remember PI with great fondness, many think the USAir's takeover was rather hamhanded.
Some now say they hadn't seen nothing yet.

Piedmont Airlines. 1985 Air Transport World "Airline of the Year". Route of the Pacemakers.
A damn good airline.

Remember Piedmont Punch? Goody's headache powder. The little speedbird chocolates.
Hot towel and free wine in coach on Calif flights. Launch order for the Boeing 737-400.
767 LAX-CLT/BWI.

Ah, the memories. OMG, 20 years does fly by fast.

Thank you so much for remembering. I hired on at PI in 1985 and we had to hire on in res part time only until there was an opening in full time. Back then we also had our own tour desk and it was great. I actually went to the tour desk to be assured of full time status only to find out that I could have stayed in Orlando and gotten it anyway, but am thankful and very happy I made the move. It was a great airline!!

 

[Dont call me Shirley]

Thank you so much for remembering. I hired on at PI in 1985 and we had to hire on in res part time only until there was an opening in full time.

Many, if not most of those, who started at PI in 80's started as P/T. One the flaws with PI was that part timers were in many respects second class citizens. The job was" to assist the full timers". P/T agents did not get step pay increases after five years IIRC. To become F/T there was the SAQT (Station Agent Qualification Test). Rampers has to know cust svc stuff and vice versa. Much in the test dated back to the pre-dereg era of multi stop flights. One had to know the procedures for flights overflying a station due to nill revenue. Might have made sense when Martin liners and YS-11s hopscotched trough the system. Not so much in the hub and spoke era. But it was quaint and gave one a feel for the old days.

 

[nycbusdriver]

Many, if not most of those, who started at PI in 80's started as P/T. One the flaws with PI was that part timers were in many respects second class citizens. The job was" to assist the full timers". P/T agents did not get step pay increases after five years IIRC. To become F/T there was the SAQT (Station Agent Qualification Test). Rampers has to know cust svc stuff and vice versa. Much in the test dated back to the pre-dereg era of multi stop flights. One had to know the procedures for flights overflying a station due to nill revenue. Might have made sense when Martin liners and YS-11s hopscotched trough the system. Not so much in the hub and spoke era. But it was quaint and gave one a feel for the old days.

Maybe true. But Piedmont had quality people lined up around the block to get one of those "second-class" part-time positions. Why? Because they treated people with the respect due every human being and a sincere gratitude when a good job was done.

Since there always seemed to be an abundance of applicants ready to step in, perhaps the SAQT was more of a motivational test than anything else. Like basic training in the military, a lot of things are done that make little practical sense, but it weeds out the "slackers."

 

[700UW]

It all wasnt peaches and cream I remember I worked Air Cargo at a very busy FL station and the manager was from LYH, he would step on your shoes to see if you were wearing steel toes, pulled up your pants legs to see if you had the right socks on and inspected your face to see if you shaved and your hair was above the collar.

Being from NY and him from VA, he told me " Ahh I dont care how yall did it up North, this is how we do it here, and I never said a word on how we did it up North to him"

 

[Dont call me Shirley]

It all wasnt peaches and cream I remember I worked Air Cargo at a very busy FL station and the manager was from LYH, he would step on your shoes to see if you were wearing steel toes, pulled up your pants legs to see if you had the right socks on and inspected your face to see if you shaved and your hair was above the collar.

Being from NY and him from VA, he told me " Ahh I dont care how yall did it up North, this is how we do it here, and I never said a word on how we did it up North to him"

Oh yes, steel toes and black socks on the ramp. Some people wore the black socks over white cotton ones. The black dye in socks gave some people with sweaty ramp feet problems.
Inside agents always had to wear their uniform coats, even on very hot days. And some managers were very southern indeed.

 

[700UW]

TPA was a station full of nepotism.

 

[WestCoastGuy]

Wow....20 years since Piedmont flew. Hardly seems possible. I remember the last departure from LAX. Red eye to CLT. Our manager allowed the PI staff to work it. As US, we worked the PI flts while the PI staff trained on the "Pacer" computer system. I will remember the flt attnds making sure we got the "Spin List" for them!! God forbid, they had to leave the gate without the Spin List!