Originally Posted by F9Pilot2022

“ Retention Bonus” or just a deceptively named Training Contract?

Frontier couldn’t increase New Hire pay any more to attract Pilots because of the Contract. So instead of raising pay by $35K they have come up with this “Bonus”. A “Bonus” they can get back.

So, my question is, can you be hired and attend training without signing up for the “bonus”, not just this upcoming class but for all future classes? Is it going to be mandatory to accept this to be hired at Frontier, either explicitly or inexplicably, meaning, if you don’t want the “bonus” then you’ll never be hired? If not then it’s just another name for a Training Contract, a very expensive Training Contract. Aren’t most Training Contracts about 10K? Very bad form to spring it on the next few classes, especially if folks have already quit their other jobs and then have this thrust upon them. This should have been made very clear during the application and interviewing process. This might have looked good at first glance to the Company but I feel this will actually hurt hiring. I wouldn’t sign a 35K Training Contract, not when I could go elsewhere so easily in today’s hiring environment. I truly believe that this will reduce the pool of possible candidates looking at Frontier.

If the Company truly wanted a Retention Bonus system to keep Folks around vs a Training Contract, they should do as some other Airlines have done. A small bonus for showing up to class, a small bonus for finishing IOE, then a bigger one after a certain time period, say three years. Heck you could really lock some folks in with offering another Bonus after Upgrade. Mentally much harder to leave somewhere once you have upgraded. Now personally I’m against bonuses. I think bonuses outside the Contract is shady by the Company. It’s a way of getting around the Contract same as offering hotel rooms to New Hires. I’m not against the Hotel rooms, but doing it outside of the Contract weakens the Union’s “power”. The Company gets to offer something at it’s whim, to it’s advantage and possibly not fairly. Anything outside of a written Contract can be and is typically abused eventually.

Let’s call this what it is, an “Expensive, Non-Prorated Training Contract”.