Not to deflate our balloon, but we used to get "cash over cap" of an 11% contribution by the company. When you hit your irs limit, the company would start sending you extra checks. Not many people reached it, but some did. Now I'd venture to say we even have fo's that reach 305,000 and certainly Captains. Most of my peers are making at least 400,000 so for us the company contribution is not 12% but more like 9% or less.

There are creative ways to recapture that money. As income, as retirement medical, and I'm sure others. We haven't done that.

One of the early tenets of the ipa was that additional flying by a crewmember should not become cheaper for the company. We blew that here.