It wasn't his squadron!:D

That's what they all said!:D

I just sat down with a guy in my reserve squadron today that works at Boeing. We looked up the current delivery schedule on the Boeing site....the employee site, not the public site...We are still on for Jul09 for the 777. No changes yet.

Not that there is anything wrong with that.

No, of course not!

Dude - come on. It's a great company and great job but you ARE drinking the kool aid.
- Best retirement? Debatable - I'd say AA and UPS have a more desirable plan if you're currently under 55. 1%A+11-12%B
- Best medical? Are you crazy!? Just because we're switching to Wellpoint/BCBS doesn't mean it's the best. In fact I'd say we have one of the worst - doesn't touch UPS. Worse than SWA. Not sure who we actually are better than - I think JB. $190/month +$20 copay and it only goes up from there. Nothing to brag about. Prove me wrong.

Maybe RedEye is looking at VEBA....


RedEye,

You call some spoiled rich kids. We call some senior bubbas cranky old dudes.

How about another list.

1) Scope payments going to VEBA with no vote. VEBA assessment on newhires and under 60 SOs. .

2) Change in age 60 position with no vote.

3) Calls for "Doing the right thing" when it concerns older members. Followed by calls to be lucky for what you have and stories of how tough it was in the old days when passover rules are broken.

4) Concessionary LOA hailed as anything but concessionary. And when the MEC is called on it, they say the information is coming...soon. And it will be complete when it comes. Well, I'm still waiting. Maybe Jack Lewis' e-mail was what the MEC had in mind. Thank you. Never received an explanation why STV was agreed upon as a concession to current SIBA rules. The MEC NEVER listed concessions for us. The STV was modified only after the membership indicated outrage. No outrage at all from any MEC member. All I know is every single MEC member says "Don't worry about it" because we (senior bubbas?) won't have to go.


You'll see how "spoiled" we are when newhires go to Paris and Hong Kong and many of us get STV love. We'll all pretend to be "shocked" by their stories of how spartan they lived.

Face it, boys... we were whupped. To the victor goes the spoils.

(I just wish we could hire some of the APAAD lobbyists over to ALPA. Or maybe the AOPA guys that fought the user fee proposal.)

Now it's time to just lay down the narrative that'll help us all get to sleep at night. "Spoiled little rich kids" helps a little. Thinking about the purple nuggets must help alot - they went straight to a widebody right seat. Yeah, it would help the old folks at the top if they could wrap us all up into a mental image of an early-thirties flat belly with a Corvette, a fighter job in the Guard and no kids in sight.

Whatever gets you through the night.....

Come on ya bunch of cry babies! Put that Purple Promise pin on and be happy!! PSP forever.;)

I agree. I'd much rather have theirs instead of being excluded again from any A fund increases.

WTF are you talking about?

Are you really that naive of our Retirement verses everyone elses?

Are you really such a know it all?

I know that we have the best Retirement in the industry.

Care to dispute that with Facts?

Said the USAIR guy in 1999
Said the United Guy in 2001
Said the Delta Guy in 2002

Only time will tell, could be SW has the best in the industry.

Look, nobody can predict the future, or if we could we'd all be rich.
I never said we have the most "Secure" retirement in the industry.
I said we have the best..............and that a fact.

Even in 1999 we had the best retirement,

USAir had a 60% A plan but No B plan.
Delta also had 2% per year A plan like us and they also had a Good 401k Match, Our B plan was better.
Yes UAL had a very good retirement, but the pilots agreed (even before UAL had financial trouble) to finance the Employee Buyout of UAL to Get rid of S. Wolf. They funded the buyout with funds from their retirement and took UAL Stock as repayment. We all know the end to that story. Wolf left happily with his millions and then failed UAL merger with USAir sent UAL stock tumbling, and then 9/11 and bankruptcy making the UAL stock and Pensions worthless.

At FedEx We have a nice mix of both. Now if you want to turn this into a philisophical debate that we need to go to an All B fund argument, that is fine but it is a different subject.
There are risks and other downsides to a B Fund only Retirement plan.
I personally like the mix. Could we make tweaks here and there to imporve it. Yes.

I stand by the statement We have the Best retirement in the Industry.
Currently no one has a better one. Actually, Nobody has had a better one for the last 9 years.

Can I get an amen!

Amen!


.......

No disagreement, on paper we got a dang good retirement plan. But as I said only time will tell. Could be Uniteds current plan is better.

Dude, 15% of not much is not much... I'm not trying to slam them--you do need a reality check!!!

Dude lets do the math:

2% X 20 years X 0 + PGBC < not much.

You people are still tough to agree with. I said our is great. Reality check time; if nothing changes in the next 25 years I am looking forward to an outstanding pension plan. Thanks dude.

No disrespect but that sounds like a punchline.

I've never had more than a ~5 year window of confidence in any airline job. I see no reason to change now. Fred ain't going to live forever, and he may be replaced well, or he may be replaced badly. Who knows who is waiting in the wings - Kelleher, or Lorenzo.....

(In other words, I agree with your earlier post.)

There's a motion today by the teamsters at the FedEx share holder meeting. The motion is to break up the CEO and Chairman of the Board positions into separate spots. Fred currently holds both. If it passes the shareholders, it will give Fred less leverage and control of FedEx.

Still think that retirement is as secure?

No disrespect taken. I like our contract, I like our security, wouldn't trade it with anyone elses. Dosen't mean it can't be better. Sounds like our R & I guys are looking at making it better. Hope we have some discussions before the next contract. I would hate to be surprised with some STV or more HRA like provisions in the retirement plan.

Look if you've got an 11% or so B plan with say an average annual earnings of $170,000 at 2007 dollars (very conservative estimate) and 25 years to go since we'll all be working to 65. With only the company's 11% and a 5% investment growth (could probably get 8% with 4% inflation) that'll give you a nest egg of about $1.2M (obviously much more if you're under 40 and have more than 25 years to go). That's your money. Yeah the pension is nice but we have no survivor benefits anymore. So when you die at age 68 and have received 3 years of your pension valued at under $500k at 2007 dollars, you may have had a nice 3 years but your family is now out of luck. You'd have to live for at least 15 years after retirement to make our current pension more valuable than a strong B plan. So that's 80 years old - what do you think?

That $800,000 life insurance benefit that took the place of the survivor's benefit, guess what? It's gone 31 days after "you no longer work for the company" - that includes retiring. Somewhat of a waste since I can buy a $500,000 insurance policy for about $43/month from USAA that will last until I'm age 65.

P.S. What happened to our new Pilot Benefits Book? Wasn't that due out quite a while ago? What do you suppose the union is doing with it since it was due to them Apr 28 by the CBA, comments from them due by June 28 and here we are about 3 months after that with nothing.

I think Kinko's is backed up. :D

"
The Survivor Income Benefit Plan that was replaced with the $800K had nothing to do with the A-plan. It was strictly for working employees. So guess what?, no change in coverage, just payment method ($800K lump sum versus 30% of your salary at death.)

You still get Survivor benefits on the A-plan if you are not single, just like on the previous contract and pre-contract. You get a reduced retirement payment and then the wife gets a payment after you're gone. I would have to look in my Benefit book to get the exact numbers.

Just looked, standard is a reduced payment (based on your age at retirement and the spouses age) and then spouse gets 50% after your death. It's known as a "50% Joint and Survivor Annuity." They have 75 and 100% options, also, but then you get even less retirement.

If you compare the 2 CBAs, nothing in the A-plan retirement section changed except the table for guys over 50 with more than 10 years of service in 1999. It now has 15 yearly multipliers instead of 4 different ones each covering several years. Other than that numbers in that one table, and the one table below it, which can increases the multiplier a maximum of a whopping .05%, as far as I can tell by comparing the two, nothing else has changed. Most of the alleged "senior good deals" were there in the 1999 CBA also.

That 1.2 million and 10 bucks will get you a cup of coffee in 25 years. Look at what a car cost 25 years ago. $3500 car now costs $25,000, .050 gas per gallon now $3. 1.2 million tommorow would be doable. 1.2 million in 25 years is chump change.

He took the inflation out. Those are constant dollars.

Just finished with my annual two days of beatings and the IP said that 727's are still getting the EFB(!?), ACARS and have been extended from 2015 to when most of us retire.

Sheit!

FD&S

That's not going to hold true for all that long if oil stays above $80 a barrel!

Wearing Bose X's and boozing with a crew of 3 ain't that bad. The bird demands to be flown, but is a joy to hand fly. If the runway is visible under the nose you can get it there. We don't get in ****ing contests about which mode to use on descent planning. If we would just quit handing off all the day flying to the bus I'd be happy flying this beast a long time.

You make it sound like keeping it around is a BAD thing. Don't dis' the girl...

No, I'm not saying that. I really enjoy flying the "2"...it lets me be a pilot. It's just that I can't hear my kids and wife screaming at me...:rolleyes:

FD&S

And that's when it's overhead at 10k...5 miles from your house...:D

What.. I can't hear you???

[quote=Albief15;236319]Wearing Bose X's and boozing with a crew of 3 ain't that bad. ]

Uh oh, time for the HIMS program! Which I think means you are high mins if you fly and drink at the same time?