Under Contract 2016, the top rate in Sept 2020 would have been $337.65. Extension 2020 pushed the top rate to $361.69 in Sept 2022. Extension 2022 pushed the top rate to $401.01 in Sept 2025.

Why does that matter? Because FDX's last raise was Nov 2020 and their top rate was $335.56. And while we we'd all like to hope we'd have had a contract by now without Extension 2022...hope is not a plan and there's no way for the EB or this pilot group to have to have guaranteed that outcome. Nevermind we'd also have been in negotiations as COVID volume which was never sustainable fell off a cliff, corporate revenue dropped 10% from COVID highs, and the airline became overstaffed (in the Company's opinion anyway). With Extension 2022 in place, we got a fairly generous VTP and then a few months later the Postal contract which brought the pilot group back to or just ahead of COVID high numbers. Would VTP and Postal have happened anyway if we'd have been in negotiations? Maybe, maybe not...there's no way for anybody regardless of their opinion on the hindsight validity of Extension 2022 to *know* what the outcomes would have been.

The EB aren't soothsayers or omnipotent; they're pilots like us, humans who have to evaluate a situation with all information known at the time, considering what is also unknown, and use that information along with their experience to make the best decisions they can, knowing they'll be responsible for both positive or negative consequences of those decisions in the future. All the Extension 2022 materials are still availble on the IPA website, including videos with reasoning. Feel how you want to feel about it today, but that doesn't change what was known and unknown and fully communicated back then. Individuals can use the benefit of hindsight to continue arguing four years later about the validity of an extension that ratified over 90% in favor...or we can move forward together from where we are today to secure the contract we have all earned.

Back to FDX: their DOS raise is a massive 39.76% to get them to $469...3.14% below DAL/UAL Jan 2026 rate of $483.74. UAL/DAL's top widebody rate will increase to be $498.25 in Jan 2027.

Without the extensions, the same 39.76% DOS raise as FDX would get us to $471.90. With Extension 2020, we'd need 37.76% at DOS to match DAL/UAL Jan 2027 rates. With both extensions, we'd need 24.25% at DOS to match DAL/UAL Jan 2027 rates. Compared to the ginormous percentage of FDX's DOS rate increase, that provides a lot of relative "pie" on a per-pilot basis to devote toward other articles, including scheduling.

I happen to think the FDX TA2 and Delta exchanging openers are at least marginally positive for our timeline, but that's just my suspicion...I don't *know*. All I can do to get us there sooner rather than later is support our team and do my job and my job only.