To answer the OP, in theory it would always be best to trade the lower part of PS for fixed pay, ***as long as upside protection is retained***. If not, you'd have to agree on some really, really high premium for giving up the upside, which would be based on speculation.

For better or worse, I think we've decided as a group we want to keep more PS. The company is printing money, and we want to be near the printer output. We're essentially all speculating on Delta's performance, and we're convinced numbers are going to stay high. Psychologically, we're hanging on to a winner, and it's sometimes very high to know when to sell a winning investment.

In the eventuality something goes wrong in the industry, and the value of PS decreases, we will not able to walk back our love for PS fast enough, and we'll be cursing the guys that got it for us, just like we cursed them when they first got it for us.

For my part, I'm OK with a large PS component. My wife and I just were updating our budget, and I'm assuming no raises this year or next, and I'm counting on about 1/2 of my current PS over the next few years. What are you guys assuming? I think someone on APC has PS approaching 50% of pay next year. Of course, that someone had Richard needing a deal last year.