I never said there weren't items that could hurt QOL. I didnt really care for the sick policy, but I'm not sure I would call it a QOL hit unless an individual was planning to use the full 100 unverified as personal time. Same for "higher insurance costs," which can certainly happen regardless of what was in the last TA.

Working 15% less days for the same pay would be a big QOL boost for me. So would having the ability to use vacation as APD's. Not to mention that if you really couldn't drop the trip without using one of those vacation APDs, your trip would most likely get covered by someone else on a GS. The TA was a far cry from perfect, but there were QOL gives and takes in our column. Hopefully more of the takes stay in the subsequent agreement.

As far as the .05 per diem- I'm with you. I'd prefer it be the max allowed to be non-taxable. I do however realize that would probably come at the expense of rates, which I personally would be OK with. There are, however, probably guys who bid reserve intentionally and don't fly much who wouldn't be so happy about it. Every pilot on our list has a little different POV.