Originally Posted by Emmerson Bigs

It's important to read between the lines on this "benefit" as well as understand some of the "fine print" that isn't in the contract language above. There's a little more to it than just providing 12 month's notice on your retirement and throwing $110,000 in your pocket.

If a pilot gives 12 months notice, his bonus shall be the lesser of: (in case it's not obvious, this means you need to max out a. and b. to get c. $110,000)
a. 50% of the pilot’s eligible earnings in excess of $520,000 (in his last 24 calendar months as a pilot);or
This says your eligible earnings need to be $740,000 in your last two-years so that when the amount over $520,000 ($220,000) is cut in half, it's at least $110,000.
It's also important to note, that NONE of these eligible earnings can be from sick leave (see 28.F.3).
It's not that difficult for a WB captain to make at least $740,000 in his last two years, but it's not a cush schedule for someone planning to slide off into retirement either.
Better hope nothing unexpected comes up in those last two years that requires significant use of your DSA - otherwise, your bonus will be less than the max.
b. 50% of the pilot’s closing DSA bank balance, multiplied by his last hourly rate, or
Guess what half of a maxed out DSA (686 CH) times our max WB captain's rate is? About $115,000.
So again, someone who wants to make sure they get the full bonus better not tap into that DSA bank too much. Just what we need, a pilot making decisions on his fitness for duty using a financial incentive as one of his metrics.
c. $110,000.

So there will be guys like USMCFDX who don't choose this path and retire with zero sick time. But for every one of those guys, you gotta figure there's at least one (I'll bet wayyyyy more) who's gonna try for that maximum bonus. Bravo to the company on this one. They got a year's warning on a pilot's retirement while they dangled .50 on the sick time dollar to get a retiring pilot (especially a retiring FO) to work a pretty robust schedule their last two years and not take much, if any, sick leave during that same time period.