Originally Posted by
Otterbox
Going to the airlines 3 years early at the 17 year mark will earn you approximately $750k-$1.05mil for the last three years of your airline career depending on if you retire as a Narrow Body Captain or Widebody Captain.
Waiting three years and collecting O-4 (ret) pay will earn you approximately $969k-1.11mil between retirement and age 65 (depending on if you’re retiring at 42 or 45yrs old).
All it takes is a single merger, a single recession, a single furlough, a single bankruptcy, to completely erase the "3 years early" financial benefit.
And, of course, we know that during the course of a 20+ year airline career there's no chance of any of that happening, right?
On the other hand, short of a massive government meltdown (in which case all bets are off anyway), that mil retirement check is going to be hitting your bank account for life.
Staying to 20 and getting both the pension and the medical benefits are a far more secure bet at the 17 year point.