Some Monster thread drift,
but Okay
I am Not looking forward to reading the Arbitrator's judgement. Can NOT even begin to fathom how he (or she) can read the history\past practice\negotiating notes\testimony from SL and somehow, some convoluted way decide Regardless of what the following Paragraph says Business is the Equivalent of the highest Class of Service available on a particular flight.
"Regardless of the class of service actually ticketed, a pilot’s
deviation bank shall be credited with the Baseline Fare for the
highest class of service which is authorized on the scheduled
deadhead flight, and which exists on that flight"
So, Regardless of what I think, an Arbitrator has decided that there is apparently NO value in that Paragraph, so it escapes me why it was even published in the first place.
As to VB plan, gets tiring arguing with people who think a Defined Benefit Plan is exactly like our current Defined Compensation plan, aka The B plan.
But here's a Clue. A Defined Compensation plan does NOT have guaranteed payouts for your life (and Beneficiaries life should you so desire).
A Defined Benefit is Also NOT subject to the same Compensation Limits. The Only Limits on a Defined Benefit Plan are whether or not it's a qualified plan. For 2018, the Qualified Pension limit is 220k. So, our 130k is easily within qualified limits now.
So, do the Math, if we had tagged our FAE to IRS limits in 2006, our FAE would be 440k now.
And I have Agreed with TonyC that improving our FAE would result in Better results than the Proposed VB plan. I just think it's Unlikely that the Same Company who Hasn't shared any of the Tax Cut benefits with us, and whose Unwilling to Credit the Deviation bank of Intl flyers with the Highest Fare available on a flight...is going to somehow agree to what should be a 70% increase in our FAE limits to restore the value of our A plan to a level that would Still be below 1999 limits