Originally Posted by
busdriver12
I don't know how much this benefits the over 25 year crowd. I made the assumption that it could only help them, but then I ran some numbers and I don't know that it benefits them that much.
If you don't have your high five, even with 25 years, it might not be a benefit, it could be a loss. And if you're at 25 years, you probably don't have much time left to work.....and since this appears very income limited, it gets you nothing from the VB until you make a certain number (the number I came up with was 206K), and gets you no extra for anything you make over 254K. I ran those numbers for three years left to work, though certainly other people's situation would be different.
It looks to me like it is going to add very little to your retirement, unless you have plenty of years left to go. The big winners on this appear to be the younger people, with decades left to accrue benefits. That is, if they live that long and stay employed.
The only pilots over 25 years without their high five would be those that stayed as narrow body CA and never flew extra or sold back vacation.
The big winners will be those over 25. Since the company was not going to put any more money into their accounts or collocate any additional money than was required under the current plan. Those over 25 will now get a piece of the new pie and since they are for the majority widebody Capts, then they will get a much bigger piece of the pie than anyone else gets. That piece will come at the expense of the junior crew members.
The junior crew members will have longer under the proposed plan and IF it works as Cheiron and Blitzstein hope then the younger pilots should even out in the long run. Not as guaranteed as the 320K cap we will get in the next contract if we don't pass this debacle. Then the every 4-5 year bump the A plan could get going forward in each new contract. But who knows. If the inventors of this nonsense and the MEC ostriches might be right and every other retirement expert in the country is wrong.