- Ops & safety teams do not prioritize passenger safety: E.g. Less than 50% of flights had pilots registering their route for flight tracking while I was there. The team would be completely caught off guard in the event of a passenger or pilot emergency. E.g. I reported to leadership two pilots that didn't appear to have validated credentials with the FAA airmen search. The response was that's someone else's job, but that person checks all credentials so don't worry about it.
- Blackbird is not remote-ok: Blackbird hired remote W2 employees, but later had to change them over to 1099 contractors when the team refused to say they "lived in CA" while living in another state. Leadership lacks trust in the remote model/employees, even when remote employees managed to triple their productivity and exceed quality standards of employees in a similar role located at HQ.
- Pay was often late or incorrect, including my last pay check. When I asked about my final paycheck, the manager said "as you know, you'll probably have to ask multiple times..."
- No training or onboarding plan: It's a start-up so this is common, but creating any sort of structure or standard process is never priority.
- Sketchy marketing practices: Blackbird offered a credit match deal to customers (E.g. Buy $1,000 in credit, get $2,000), then doubled their flight costs after the promotion was over. Many customers complained about this practice, and leadership's response was to just offer a refund. That's a fair resolution, but their bait and switch approach was a real trust buster for many customers.
The website also advertised flights for $50-59 on defined routes, when the lowest fares for each were actually 2-5x the advertised rate. Leadership later instructed the team to respond to customers saying those fares were sold out, when we knew that wasn't the case. [This has since been corrected]
