Guys,

Lots of misleading and incomplete information in this thread.

The PS formulas are a percentage on pre-tax income (PTIX). Exactly how PTIX is calculated is important - think of it as the "fine-print."

So AMR just announced 5% of PTIX into a PS pool. No details yet on now that will be distributed - my guess is a formula based on earing's which is as close to an industry standard as we have.

DAL contributes 10% of income up to 2.5 Billion and 20% of income for all profit above 2.5 Billion PTIX. For the past two years this has resulted in approximately 16% and 22% respectively of each employees qualified earnings.

UAL has a similar system but I believe it is based on profit margins vice a flat PTIX number like DAL but both pay similarly with similar profits.

As mentioned another important fact is if your PS generates a 401 contribution. At DAL if you make $40,000 in PS you also will also receive an additional 15% of that as a 401K contribution. I am not sure if UAL or AMRs PS have this provision or not.

So when people are saying that AMR is getting 5% and DAL is getting 22% they are comparing apples to oranges.

In any case this is great news. Hopefully DALPA can leverage this into a zero or much smaller PS capitulation during our current negotiations. It also raises the bar for all legacies, and hopefully AMR can increase the PS amount in the future to closer match the DAL and UAL plans.

Scoop