Originally Posted by
Carl Spackler
First of all, they offered no PERPS to 747-400 or A330 Captains. That was a surprise. Second is the huge hit in early retirement medical coverage. If you leave early, family coverage costs $1,900 per month. I definitely think that unwelcome surprise has made some folks pause.
There is no lump sum offer for our retirement. The only lump sum is the 5 months of pay for PERPing out.
I still believe a lot of folks will want to PERP out, but that medical coverage cost really needs to change. We ought to be incentivising senior folks to leave, not punishing them for leaving.
Carl
Welcome to the new world of working through retirement. This is no different than the plight regarding medical benefits faced by non-airline soon to be retirees like my parents. While I agree it should be less, as a younger pilot in my upper 30s who has subsidized the senior pilots for 12 years I don't feel like paying anymore through reduced wages so they can have lower health care. The fact is that if you're retiring, the kids have left the house and you enjoyed the most lucrative career seen by airline pilots. You are going out with a pension, a paid for house, and years of making top dollar that should have been invested.
It should be no surprise that health care costs have risen. $1900 for a family seems incredibly high to me but is that for a family of five or you and your wife? However, what is a realistic amount? $500/month. If so, that's $1400 per pilot per month that will need to come from somewhere. I would rather put that in my pocket so I can save for a retirement funded by me or pay off a house, or simply make back the 50% paycut taken over the past three years.