So y'all can cash out $200k in sick leave when you retire, so around 500 hours at top rate currently if I did my math right. Over a 30 year career that means you banked over 16 hours on average a year. So of those 60 you get each year, you only used 44 if you banked the max payout.

Over that same hypothetical 30 year career at Delta, you could have called in sick 100 hours every year without getting a doctor's note, and 120 hours going forward. I'm not entirely sure what sick policy was here several contracts ago, but I've heard it was better. Oh, and if you can be bothered to go in to an urgent care, or find some other way to get a note, you would average 223 hours a year over that 30 year career. Even with your first 11 years at pay steps below top, and as an FO until you upgrade, those extra hours on top of 44 a year seems to add up real quick, and let you invest them or spend them. At current top rates, a 350 captain here who used all 270 would get an extra 226x417.54x1.16, or a cool $109k at the expense of getting said notes. Oh, and does your $200k payment increase every year of the contract? Because our 120-270 hours sure does. That same captain that maxes out his sick leave would get $124k in addition to your 44 hours in 2027. Doesn't take long for those numbers to go above $200k.

Hmm... 44 or up to 226 with the pay now instead of at the end of your career. I know which one I think I like better, but maybe you are just bad at math.