\No they never paid it in the past.

It was always rob Peter to pay Paul.

The 5% cliff was invented to help the pilot group think they had a 10% retirement in an age when other airlines were not profitable and JetBlue was. This helped Jetblue keep the narrative alive that PS was not important or warranted since the other guys were not getting any.

Then ALPA surveyed THIS pilot group.

Tada! Most, apparently, thought it was not important. This was NOT on the pilot group this is on ALPA for not educating the group. I very much doubt the group reported it would be happy with 0.2% instead of 8% plus trailing base rates and cola etc, etc, etc.

But that is how it was interpreted.