Some of us are way beyond money 101. As much as you believe Laughter is the best medicine, I've chosen alignment with the federal government and central banks for my financial future. The correct answer to your financial problems is acquiring income producing assets with long term debt, then letting the inflationary bias of the aforementioned entities do the heavy lifting. Understanding the value of a dollar today vs tomorrow is why Delta has become a side hustle after only a decade of real estate investing. I'm here for the enjoyable flying.

Full retro is more about holding the company accountable to prevent future abuses. We have a negotiating committee who has heard the pilots and understands inflation. Too many are willing to look at one contract in a vacuum and treat a signing bonus as upfront wages. Kicking the can down the road is how we lose one percent at a time over a multi decade career. "We'll get em next time" is the rally cry. A signing bonus day 1 in lieu of retro can't also be counted as prepayment of future wages, pick one. As much as you like to ridicule the APC crowd on lack of financial acumen there seems to be a problem with basic arithmetic. You can't count the same dollar twice. Is your "signing bonus" example payment of back wages or is it prepayment of wages in exchange for lower annual increases?