Originally Posted by
House of Usher
During the NWA/DAL merge, I lost 1,200hrs+ of sick bank. I played by the rules calling in sick only when ill. It was a royal screw job by ALPA and management. A portion of the 1,200hrs+ covers part of my DPMA premiums for the remainder of my career. ALPA said, "See, this is actually a really good deal for you." Unless I fly until I'm 195 yrs old, there's no way I'll ever recover it. What they really meant was, "Gee, sucks to be you."
Lesson learned.
…unless you actually need DPMA, which serves the same as a large sick bank (accrued by rarely calling in sick over a long career.)
You/we had our NWA sick banks applied to DPMA premiums as you mention, getting access to DPMA in many cases during late career. Delta bubbas had been paying into that fund all along. A year of sick + LTD + DPMA gets you awfully close to your 1200 hours; potentially much more using the FAE lookback.
Oh and you can call in sick 270 hours this year and not impact next years ability to have the same safety net - not so in the NWA system where you would head into next year with 930 hours following a similar event. I wouldn’t trade back given the chance. The good old days weren’t always better.
No need to fly to 95. You’ve been made more than whole.
-a FNWA pilot