Originally Posted by
corporategypsy
In all seriousness why even apply somewhere you would not even stay 2 years for. That raises questions on your resume and about your work ethic. It cost companies a lot of time and money to train pilots and looks bad if you just show up for a free type rating and recent jet time. C5 gives the whole bonus up front and wants it all back of you leave before 12 months and half of before 24. Most other airlines give you the bonus a little at a time after some milestones like ioe, 6 and 12 months. No paying back but you don't have it all at once.
While I'm sure there are people who go to companies just to grab a type rating (and I personally saw one do exactly that), I'm not here to judge them. The reality is this is at-will employment and the employee is free to do whatever is legal with respect to the contract they sign. You know damn well the company will do exactly the same thing, even if it screws the employee. That's just business. My advice reflects the reality that not everyone gets through training or makes it through their first year of probation. Those people need to pay every cent back.
You seem to imply that there is a benefit to getting the bonus up front. That's not the case, at least for me. The bonus is considered compensation. So you pay the taxes up front and, should you leave in the following tax year for any reason and have to return the bonus, you have to chase the IRS down to get your money back. In my particular case the bonus wrecked my tax strategy for the year. I asked if they would defer the bonus and they said "no, we can't do that...the bonus is part of the contract".
Frankly, I hate signon bonuses, strings or no strings. I'd just rather have the bonus wrapped into the pay rates, much as they did at Endeavor...that way everyone on property benefits. However, even Republic's method of distributing portions of the bonus on various milestones makes more sense, because then the money is yours without question.