Originally Posted by
Sike
So... pay excluded, which airline job has the best package? I'm talking about health insurance, retirement contributions, vacation time, sick time, trip rigs, duty rigs, hotels, etc. I know it's not an easy question to answer, but is there any kind of consensus out there? Let's include the cargo carriers in this too.
That's really an impossible answer.
For example, Delta has company provided life insurance in the $850K range, yet some pilots decline it because they don't want to pay the tax on the imputed income that the IRS charges for that benefit.
Some pilots take and pay for gucci medical that covers everything for a whole family, some simply take minimal insurance and put their/company contribution of money into their FSA/HSA's.
Some pilots abhor the fact that you can't fly on your vacation time at Delta, some pilots enjoy their 5 weeks of vacation.
Some senior pilots find reserve so delightful that they bid it on purpose for an 82 hr guarantee during the summer and yet some pilots complain that having to stand short call from 0-6 times in a month as overwhelmingly abuse of reserve pilots.
There is little doubt that a line bid system can fully exploit the advantages of seniority (depending on the construction of the lines) with full transparency as when compared to PBS bidding systems which distort the seniority system a bit to make the most efficient solution for the company and building schedules that avoid conflicts with vacation and training.
So at every company you will find a benefit/problem that pilots will claim is superior/inferior to the way everyone else does it. It's all about perspective.