Originally Posted by
Staller
That may have been true for a short period but if you factor in all the other benefits probable not.
If you look at the last contract, the UAL side is paying about 30% more for health insurance and 100% of Long Term Disability. Those two things wiped out the pay raise. Don't know what the cal guys were paying for these or what you got in terms of retirement contributions but I'm sure you were paying more and receiving less than UAL's. I don't think you can really claim superior pay for being a "second tier airline" just on hourly rate.
Factoring all pay and benefits UAL and CAL tracked remarkably close in the years leading up to the merger. From 2003 to 2009 the total cost of a pilot was more at CAL than at UAL in all but one year. In so far as total package of pay and benefits is a part career expectations CAL held a well-established and slight edge going into 2010.
http://web.mit.edu/airlinedata/www/2...Equivalent.htm