Originally Posted by
Thor
"A Lot"? what percentage of pilots retiring at age 65 have a SL balance in excess of 500 hours. That number would be telling. The current United contract is a "use it or lose it" for sick leave and many pilots as they near retirement are having the elective surgeries they've been putting off for a career, and of course not wanting to leave anything on the table. To use "pilots on sick leave" as a metric of reliability for UAL pilots under the current CBA is disingenuous at best. Reporting pilots that start a long term disability claim at age 63 or older would be a far more accurate measure of pilot heath for that age group, and ALPA R&I could easily provide those numbers. Since LTD requires verification of illness by the policy underwriter, there'd be a much lower risk of the numbers being skewed by "creative scheduling".
Come on Thor, you know I don't have a number. Are you saying that you haven't heard of guys who have proudly said that they have a ton of SL when they're about to retire? I assume you're a fairly senior WB CA; ask some of your FOs if they hear that much.
I've had cancer so I understand how LTD works. And I've also listened to senior WB CAs telling me which surgeries they're getting at 64+. Usually hip, shoulder, knee. And many of them have mapped out multiple surgeries in that last year. I completely understand all of that; I could use a couple of elective surgeries that I'll save for when I'm close to retirement. And since we're discussing burning high sick banks, a lot of guys plan on burning 90 hrs/mo until depleted so that delays collecting (the lower dollar) LTD.
I hope we can agree that the high percentage of pilots out on SL will simply shift to the last 1-2 years before any new retirement age.