Originally Posted by rickair7777

Federal law prohibits age discrimination (a federal specifying 65 or 67 is by definition not discrimination, since it's the law).

Such a prohibition, clearly and by long precedent, requires reasonable accommodation.

Accomodation would obviously include allowing them to bid a domestic only fleet. It would also include allowing them to bid a mostly domestic fleet and then bid-avoid international.

Now if their seniority can't hold any of that, then it might complicated... is the airline obligated to honor their bid and pay them to not fly? Can the airline park them without pay at all if they can't bid a domestic fleet? Can the airline drop no pay any international trips they do bid for? That depends mostly on CBA interpretation I suspect, and CBA's weren't written to account for this so I suspect various interpretations and lawsuits.

This is why congress *should* add some specific language, but of course they don't listen to me and if the ship hasn't already sailed, the mooring lines are off now.

But I'm confident that "I'm a global airline so I'm going to fire all 65+" will not hold up in court given existing laws and precedent.


I assume the battle line will be drawn here...

Airlines: Bid what you can hold, and we'll pay you to fly trips you can legally fly. We'll drop the rest, and cancel your benefits if your credit is too low.

Boomers: Per the CBA, I want to bid anything I can hold, and then get paid if the airline displaces me.