ABK man .. that sounds great but it shows a lack of understanding about how our seniority system works. EVERYTHING is seniority based. Monthly schedules, vacations, seat positions (pay!), training dates and more. So for every guy that decides to stick around past 60, my life gets just a little bit worse and I make just a little bit less money. If a bunch of them decide to stay ... well let's just hope that won't happen.

Here's the part I just don't understand. Let's take a guy that has completed his 25 years at the company. He gets 50% of his pay to retire. If he sticks around to be a flight engineer (that's all the FAA permits them to do today, and that isn't expected to change for at least 2 years) then he makes 61% of his MD-11 Capt pay to be a DC-10 flight engineer (but the DC-10's will be gone soon and 727 engineers only get paid 53% of widebody capt pay). So best case, he's working a full time job (with some REALLY TERRIBLE HOURS) for 11% of his pay (remember that he gets 50% to sit at home). I JUST DON'T GET IT.

I'm certain that some on the discussion will point out that some don't have their 25 years here fir various reasons. Still ... if you crunch the numbers, working past age 60 just doesn't make any sense (not even as a widebody capt! if the could even do that). I bet the company LOVES those guys, it saves them a ton of money.

I'll assume that those guys have no hobbies ... I can find 100 things I would rather do than this job full time for 11% of my pay.

Rant over ...



Mark