Originally Posted by
FL370esq
I'm not so sure about that. If I pull 10 hours out of my bank as a $150/hr FO, I received $1,500.00 for those 10 hours. If I now repay those hours as a $225/hr Captain, I am foregoing $2,250.00 of current pay to make the deposit, which, it would seem, results in a net loss of $750 in the overall scheme of things.
You are correct...but ultimately the math takes a back seat to personal benefit. So I'm at -30 right now. Yes, I will now have to repay it at a "higher" rate, but taking the hours out when I did proved mighty useful at the time (I bought a bunch of vacation days, and I used them to great personal advantage). It was what I needed at the time and I would do it again in a heartbeat. The fact that some get all wrapped around the numerical calculations is beside the point. The fact is that some of us go negative, and others stay positive for long stretches of time. Use the bank to your personally-defined good use and forget the rest.