Originally Posted by
Timbo
The guys who are 62-64 today lost millions in their DB plans, with little time to recoup it. They are flying their butts off trying to put enough in the bank to retire and not have to be a greeter at Wal Mart.
It's easy to say you'll go low and relax at 62....when you are 40 or 50. When you are 62 with no DB plan and little in the bank, no so much. The 'smart play' I see is to bid international F/O and buddy bid with LCA's drop trips and only fly greenslips. That's why we have a lot of 25+ year F/O's on the 777 and other international wide bodies.
They make more than narrow body domestic Captain and work far less days, and when they do work, it's one leg to a 24+ hour layover in a nice hotel, not 9 hours at the airport Holiday Inn.
I hope my post didn't sound too insensitive, I know a lot of our guys are still recovering from the losses.
As far as the LCA thing, I don't know about the other intl categories, but on the 7ER in ATL, that seems like more of a seasonal strategy. I think NYC and DTW are still short in September but ATL has almost 100 guys on reserve in SEP. The seasonal nature of the International flying makes it hard to pick up greenslips during the off season unless you live in base and are willing to do 1 day GS.
It's still a much higher paying strategy than dropping two trips a month, and I'm sure the 777 and A330 which have longer trips probably allows for more GS during the whole year.