Originally Posted by
sweetholyjesus
From your post history, looks like you're at Envoy. Their highest FO rate is $43/hr. Your guarantee is only 72 hrs for lineholders. So, your guaranteed salary is only $37,000.
Now if you add your bonuses (which run out after year 3), you will make $59000 year 1, $49000 year 2, and $49000 year 3. After year 3 you are back down to $37,000 unless you are fortunate enough to upgrade (and how close was American to closing Envoy when they voted no?).
If you aren't finished paying off that loan by then, things could start getting tight, I imagine. Most people can't pay a $70,000 loan in 3 years....Do you understand now why I'm saying that the bonuses aren't guaranteed/salary? And that's even with the assumption that the company will actually pay it.
I absolutely would prefer the retention bonuses get rolled in to pay raises. And if airlines start taking away retention bonuses (Envoy, Endeavor, etc.) prior to upgrades, yep -- that'll be a problem. I'm no fortune teller, but if they do pull them away, I think management would see FOs start to trickle out. Only time will tell.
But I think your approx numbers prove my point -- clearing 60k as an FO, disregarding any BS "sign on" bonuses -- is absolutely possible -- and I do it myself. You can 1) bid for credit lines WELL above 72 hours; 2) bid 72 hours with more days off and pick up OT when it goes to critical coverage; 3) save your per diem as a personal choice to boost your take home pay a bit. I really don't feel like I work myself to death, at all, to get to that number either. It was my target amount going into this game, and without much effort I make that amount happen.
That said, I don't disagree -- if Envoy, or anyone else, starts yanking continued-payout "bonuses," the math doesn't work as well for getting to 60k. That'll be a discussion to have in a few years, assuming they aren't negotiated into pay raises by then...