Continental actually had no health insurance for 6 months not a year. We still do 90days which is ridiculous.
And yes first year is actually lower than $38.50 because training pay is a complete slap in face to any professional. Which is why now that upgrade time has become an eternatity we are no longer attracting professionals. You simply just don't make much money in the right seat. The only hope was to upgrade fast and make legacy narrow body FO pay without the retirement. Moving forward we are going to attract some real gems and/or some good guys that will just rotate in and then out to a legacy. Very similar to early 2001 and you can see the peaches we got around that time frame. Obviously there are some exceptions.