IMHO, the A380 rates that we negotiated at the last minute are woefully inadequate. For an airplane that can carry DOUBLE what a MD-11 can carry, why should we have settled for 6.5% more (approx $17/hour in the left seat) than the MD-11 CAP rate!!!!! I was blown away that we would have settled for anything less than $350+/hour.

Remember that Delta (pre-2001) was paying $325/hour for the left seat in the 777, for hauling PEOPLE!!! Keep in mind the revenue per flight that we can generate with the 777 and you can begin to see that, even at $325/hour, the crew cost won't even be a pimple on the total cost to move that much freight/revenue for the company. I remember in my new hire indoc, some suits bragged that we easily generate 10 times or more the revenue, per leg, than the pax carriers do.

Pay no attention to the abysmal 380 rates - They are so low they don't even matter.

Don't sell yourself short on the 777 payrates!!!