Originally Posted by
Han Solo
Very interesting. I started to do the math to show how it couldn't be done but the math says its very doable.
If they fly to pickup limit every month it will average out to 90 hours/month which means they need roughly 8 days worth of GS every single month to get to 172 hours. That's $336k + $16k excess DC. Now if you add in another 15% PS then they're right at $400k (assuming they made the same $336k last year, probably a little generous since manning was better).
So to get to PU limit they're working 17 days, obviously a few of these will be 2-day 2-leg easy trips so not the end of the world. Add in the 8 days of GS and they're working 25 days a month, that's quite a bit of work, it can be done but most guys aren't going to want to work that much. I did RT in the spring/summer of '16 and averaged 180 hours (at $99/hour!) working about 20 days each month for 6 months so I know it's doable when manning is really bad. These days I come home from a 3 day trip and I'm usually exhausted, I don't think I could sustain 25 days a month for an entire year -- maybe if those 17 days of getting to the PU limit are entirely high credit 2 and 3 day trips with 2-3 total legs but only low single digit seniority % in category will be able to swing that. If they get rerouted enough then they might be able to shave a day or two off each month on average and still hit $400k.
Getting to $400k to me is a Moonshot. Maybe I'd try it just to push myself once but unlikely. No judgement on guys who do though, but it would be too painful for me personally to do max PU + GS
every month. Getting to +$300 however, IMHO is not that difficult for someone at 20% seniority on the 717.
85 hr line + 18hr GS = 121 hrs x (155-165 rate) x 1.305 (DC + 2018 PS) x 12 months = $293k - $313k split the diff and call it $303k (plus another $10k domestic per-diem) = $313k
18 hr GS usually = 3 days of work. 85 hrs on the line is abt 16 days (minus any LCA buy off so probably avg 14.5 - 15) in total I avg 17-20 days per month with some of those being easy 1-2 day trips where no one even knows you were gone. It can/has been done.