“Pilots of Frontier Airlines, Inc. shall participate in any Discretionary Bonus Program on the same terms and conditions of other non-management employees.”

Long time listener, first time caller here who is a lawyer but with no knowledge of this industry and who recently applied to F9 as an RTP applicant.

Discretionary Bonus Program. How is this defined? The original poster, monkey brains, of the above clause indicated that new hires in ground school were “demanded” by F9 to agree to the bonus. Was continued training and employment with F9 contingent on agreeing to the bonus?

“Other non-management employees.” How is this defined? I’m assuming this definition is limited to employees who are not in managerial roles as opposed to employees who are not hired by and/or under the control of corporate management. If the former, would this mean that a discretionary bonus offered to non-managment FA’s, flight ops, maintenance employees would have to be made available to pilots as well?

Aside from the pilots in training who were given the bonus “demand” and who were likely employees at the time of the demand, I think the issue whether giving discretionary bonuses to applicant pilots violates the contract hinges on when the bonus is given and when an applicant becomes an employee.