I want no part of a traditional DB pension. When I walk out the door I want to give DAL the big middle finger that they have earned, I want to be owed nothing by this company and I want them to have ZERO financial involvement in my life when I leave.

Back when we had 60% FAE, many pilots would stay senior on smaller equipment. I knew several guys that flew the 737 until their last year then they would bid the L1011 even though they were junior. Wanna know why? Because the full service bank then, like now was 60 hours. Know how that came about? Because 60/12 =5. Back then, reserve guarantee was always l 5 hours less than the regular line award. And as a regular line holder you could only bid/fly/get paid up to a set limit each month. I don't remember exactly what it was, but let's say it was 75 hours. (That probably isn't far off). No matter what you flew, as a regular line holder you would only get paid 75 hours in THIS month. A reserve pilot would only get paid for 70. But a reserve pilot could take that 5 hours out of his bank and 'fill up'. You could also use any time over 75 hours to spill back to a month in which you didn't fly the full 75 hours as a regular line holder. If you flew 85 hours, the remaining 10 would flow into next month as a 'bow wave', or you could put some into the 'bank'. So in order to have a full month, you only had to work 65 hours next month. That system was much better suited to 'mo time off, but you were limited in how much you cold make each month. I guess we have proven that when confronted with mo' money or mo' time off we will choose mo' money everytime

Back to the original story. So a captain on the 737 was making... I dunno, let's say $150/hour or $11,250/month (I don't remember and I don't want to look it up), and an L1011 A was making $200/hour or Had that guy worked his last three years at 737 rates, his DB retirement would have been structured on the $150 for three year average and he would have received 60% of that or about $6,750/month for the rest of his life. Buuuuuut... since he went to the L1011 for a year, that $200 was factored in and his FAE jumped to $7,500/month for the rest of his life. He was senior right up until his last year and had to suck it up for an extra $750/month in retirement.

But then Delta wanted to shed their commitment and we all know the rest of that story ...

Oh and I think ALPA is lying to us on the MBCBP. jmho, ymmv. dyodd.