Actually Herkflyr, the profits would vanish along with our payrates as was demonstrated by the actual 911.
Ah, but it took between 9/11 and late 2004 to take
any pay cuts. In fact, after the tragedy of 9/11, and billion$ in losses, we still took pay raises in 2002, 2003, and 2004. Yes, we eventually gave them all back--and much more--but that actually was an example of "monetizing" possible PS into actual pay rates. My guess is that the guys who at some point in the late 90s were banging the PS drum were very quiet from 2002-04.
I don't know why everyone is in such a hurry to get rid of or "monetize" something that we have already paid for in a contract. Let's go into C2015 and negotiate without regard to giving up our profit sharing. If Dalpa can't get us a pretty good contract in these times then our approx 2% each month for union dues is going to waste.
I don't know that anyone is in a hurry to monetize anything--certainly not me! I just know that Wall St hates such huge PS amounts. So what? Wall Street is often far too short-term-obsessed, and I am glad that our company really doesn't care--so far. That said, we need to know that the subject will be brought up at some point. It would have to take some huge "monetizing" for me to vote for any TA that would reduce the PS.