Originally Posted by
Pineapple Guy
Wasatch, your memory is exactly as mine is, so you must be right.
Seriously, I was relatively junior, and strongly opposed to this because the effect was exactly as you describe. Due to training restrictions, many of the 500 (increased to 505 to cover certain individuals!) ended up retiring on their normal retirement, so no movement for the young guys. Yet, it was this promised movement that got us to sign off on a 2% paycut and 4 years with zero raises. Yes, there was profit sharing, and as it turned out that paid out (6% annually as I recall), but that means you got one 6% raise, then 3 years of the same pay.
Woo hoo.
Some pilots did retire on their normal date. They did however only get their normal retirement in that case. The 505 came out of the top 790 pilots at the airline. They all had 25 years so the points went to age. You could not draw more then the age 60 retirement provided. You may not have liked the program but all our furloughed pilots came back to work and Delta posted the largest bid in their history that did produce a huge amount of movement. Again there was no huge windfall for senior guys. They simply got their earned retirement. As far as the pre 72 pilots the company as you stated requested to freeze the benefit. The senior pilots I knew felt DALPA sold them out by agreeing to the freeze because the S@P was going up and up. I am still waiting for all the huge benefits the senior group got while raping the junior guys. The 96 contract has become a urban legend.