Originally Posted by
Andy
That's got to be one of the funniest things I've read in a very long time. The incentive package was the reason for most of DAL's early retirements; most, not some. And the way that the frozen Northwest pension is structured, there are additional financial incentives for fNWA pilots to retire prior to 65.
I suppose that sudden surge of AMR retirements had nothing to do with the company being on the verge of bankruptcy? If that's the case, why the sudden increase and decline in retirements at AMR centered on their BK filing?
In a nutshell, you are saying that financial incentives have zero impact on pilot retirements. Rather than acknowledge that financial incentives have a significant impact on retirements, you chose to portray the clearly demonstrated linkage as grasping at straws. I guess you're now going to say that pilots are more happy at United than Delta?
What is laughable is the extreme difficulty you're having in understanding what an early retirement is. My involvement began in this thread after this post below.
Originally Posted by
hockeypilot44
This is false. Most are staying until they are 65. The ones leaving early are not leaving by choice (usually medical problems).
My response was this....
Originally Posted by
johnso29
Really? That's a pretty inaccurate statement considering we aren't even 5 years into age 65 yet. Not to mention the 163 guys that voluntarily retired before Age 65 between last August & Jan 1st.
It proved that hockeypilot44's statement was incorrect. Then you came on here and told us that they weren't early retirements just because they were provided incentive packages. I said that guys were retiring BEFORE 65 years of age. They are not all being forced out by medical issues. They are leaving on their own terms. They are making the decision to leave before they are required to. I don't understand why you have such difficulty grasping this. What does the monetary incentive have to do with anything? Is a pilot who stays until Age 65 not also driven by monentary incentives? Is someone staying in the left seat of the 747-400 until Age 65 not doing it for money? You don't know. They could be greedy, they could need the money, or they could just love the job so muh they can't bring themselves to leave. It doesn't matter.
You've twisted this entire thread big time. My statement was simply that pilots at Delta are indeed retiring before Age 65 because they choose to do so. Why they do so was never nor will ever be relevant. It doesn't matter. If a guy chooses to retire before the mandatory retirement age of 65, it's an early retirement. Period.