Companies Allowing Employees to Fly

On 7 Nov 2006 05:34:37 -0800, "Steve - KDMW"
wrote:

Is my company misguided or do they really have some liability if I use
my airplane instead of my car for regional travel? What's the
difference between me crashing my airplane into a school (their
example) or plowing my car into the same school's bus stop?


Thanks for the post, and everyone who responded. This came up for me
a couple months ago and the company paid $1,000 for me to fly
commercial when it would have cost only about $300 for me to fly
myself. I was pretty frustrated and have been wondering why they
would exclude use of personal aircraft ever since.

This thread has given me some insight as to why.

z

Long ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away...when I worked for Boeing (and it
really wasn't that long ago) we had to take 15 employees (2 managers and
the rest engineers) on a trip to meet customers. Our in-house travel
agency couldn't figure out what was going on, since we had to change
the dates repeatedly over the 2 month period. I finally took over
all the planning (logistics - no big deal, I ran it as if it was an
engineering project!)

On a lark, I called Seattle and asked about "borrowing" one of the
jets that the Executives use. Turns out that yes, we could make
arrangements and use it at the same billed cost as the execs. The
overall cost would have been 50% *cheaper* than flying commercial.
Why? Because due to the changing schedule, we had to pay full-fare in
order to mitigate changing the flights.

For some strange reason, my boss was *not* surprised I did this, but
would not take it to our director (just under the VP level).

Bummer.

"Blanche" wrote in message ...
: Long ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away...when I worked for Boeing (and it
: really wasn't that long ago) we had to take 15 employees (2 managers and
: the rest engineers) on a trip to meet customers. Our in-house travel
: agency couldn't figure out what was going on, since we had to change
: the dates repeatedly over the 2 month period. I finally took over
: all the planning (logistics - no big deal, I ran it as if it was an
: engineering project!)
:
: On a lark, I called Seattle and asked about "borrowing" one of the
: jets that the Executives use. Turns out that yes, we could make
: arrangements and use it at the same billed cost as the execs. The
: overall cost would have been 50% *cheaper* than flying commercial.
: Why? Because due to the changing schedule, we had to pay full-fare in
: order to mitigate changing the flights.
:
: For some strange reason, my boss was *not* surprised I did this, but
: would not take it to our director (just under the VP level).
:
: Bummer.

Any employee in our company can try to book a flight on the company jets. There is even a rudimentary reservation
system. The catch is that there has to be enough demand locally and the planes need to be passing by. Sounds good until
you actually try to use it. Imagine, the CEO is on board, but we are going to stop by Kalamazoo to pick up a design
engineer that needs to go to Cleveland...

..Blueskies. wrote:
"Blanche" wrote in message ...
: Long ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away...when I worked for Boeing (and it
: really wasn't that long ago) we had to take 15 employees (2 managers and
: the rest engineers) on a trip to meet customers. Our in-house travel
: agency couldn't figure out what was going on, since we had to change
: the dates repeatedly over the 2 month period. I finally took over
: all the planning (logistics - no big deal, I ran it as if it was an
: engineering project!)
:
: On a lark, I called Seattle and asked about "borrowing" one of the
: jets that the Executives use. Turns out that yes, we could make
: arrangements and use it at the same billed cost as the execs. The
: overall cost would have been 50% *cheaper* than flying commercial.
: Why? Because due to the changing schedule, we had to pay full-fare in
: order to mitigate changing the flights.
:
: For some strange reason, my boss was *not* surprised I did this, but
: would not take it to our director (just under the VP level).
:
: Bummer.

Any employee in our company can try to book a flight on the company jets. There is even a rudimentary reservation
system. The catch is that there has to be enough demand locally and the planes need to be passing by. Sounds good until
you actually try to use it. Imagine, the CEO is on board, but we are going to stop by Kalamazoo to pick up a design
engineer that needs to go to Cleveland...


I used to work for General Dynamics and when there was a group of 10 or
so who had to go from San Diego to LA for a evening meeting of a Tech
Society we were able to use a corporate aircraft for it. This was long
before I started flying and I did not know the benefits of GA but it a
no brainer for this flight as we all worked a full day, flew up for the
meeting and returned that night. All we had to do was submit the
request and have the various sign offs but it worked well for us. This
was in the 80s so who knows what the process would be now.

Up until the Compaq merger, Hewlett-Packard used to have an "employee
pilot" program. Some of the requirements were pretty stiff (time, annual
checkride with the company chief pilot, high insurance liability
coverage) and were designed to discourage VFR weekend pilots from using
their aircraft for business trips. Nevertheless, it was a reasonable
program for semi-professional pilots.

Since the influx of the Compaq management however, that program has been
completely cancelled. Even though being lobbied to re-authorize the
program, HP's current management has turned a deaf ear.


-----Original Message-----
From: .Blueskies. ]
Posted At: Friday, November 17, 2006 7:28 PM
Posted To: rec.aviation.owning
Conversation: Companies Allowing Employees to Fly
Subject: Companies Allowing Employees to Fly


"Blanche" wrote in message
...
: Long ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away...when I worked for Boeing (and
it
: really wasn't that long ago) we had to take 15 employees (2 managers
and
: the rest engineers) on a trip to meet customers. Our in-house travel
: agency couldn't figure out what was going on, since we had to change
: the dates repeatedly over the 2 month period. I finally took over
: all the planning (logistics - no big deal, I ran it as if it was an
: engineering project!)
:
: On a lark, I called Seattle and asked about "borrowing" one of the
: jets that the Executives use. Turns out that yes, we could make
: arrangements and use it at the same billed cost as the execs. The
: overall cost would have been 50% *cheaper* than flying commercial.
: Why? Because due to the changing schedule, we had to pay full-fare
in
: order to mitigate changing the flights.
:
: For some strange reason, my boss was *not* surprised I did this, but
: would not take it to our director (just under the VP level).
:
: Bummer.

Any employee in our company can try to book a flight on the company
jets.
There is even a rudimentary reservation
system. The catch is that there has to be enough demand locally and
the
planes need to be passing by. Sounds good until
you actually try to use it. Imagine, the CEO is on board, but we are
going
to stop by Kalamazoo to pick up a design
engineer that needs to go to Cleveland...