PhoenixII

First of all, congrats on the new contract.

I am going to be making a tough decision here and need major input. Can someone answer any or all of these questions?

1. What is a typical monthly schedule (does cargo move on weekends or holidays?)

2. I understand new FOs in current hiring cycle can expect ANC-- is this true?

3. Is it easy to manipulate schedule, i.e. pick up and drop trips?

4. Does anyone know if the pension is "fully funded". I hear there is a big difference between a fully funded pension and one that is not. What does A/B 1%/12% mean? Not familiar with pensions, could someone explain?

5. This may sound stupid (if I haven't already sounded so) but it seems that FedEx/UPS pilots stay in really nice hotels (okay, compared to SWA-- most layovers, not all, aren't that great).

Thanks in advance for your time on this!

Signed,
Happy to have this "Problem"

Maddog39

1. I believe UPS and FedEx fly 365 a year. There are no holidays or weekends. Every day is the same.
2. FedEx si send new hires to the MD-11 in ANC at the moment. Can change tomorrow.
3. Fedex has great rules concerning changing schedule, picking up/drops.
4. Not sure of UPS but FedEx announced in Wall Street Journal acticle about two months ago that its pension funds were 87% funded, whatever that means.
5. We do stay in very nice hotels....FedEx.

FlyByNight

Glad to hear of your problem, I'm no expert but here's my input,

1. There is no typical schedule per say, however once you get some seniority alot of schedules are 1 wk on 1 wk off. There is bit of weekend flying, and not too much on holidays

2. Seems as if most new hires in the near future will go to ANC

3. P/U and trade with open time is easy, quality of open trips to trade with is a different issue (on our own individual accord, most didn't p/u open time during negotiations.)

4. Not sure about the pension funding %, maybe someone else can chime in on that. New contract has a different A fund scheme than previous contract. Generally, (I'm no finance expert) the mainly the difference between A and B funds is:

A fund money stays in the company's possession until they pay out (which unfortunately under bankruptcy proceedings allows them to escape that obligation).

B fund money goes directly into an agreed to (company and union) account under you name. If the company goes under, you still have the money.

5. Almost all hotels are nice, however I'd rather stay at a good hotel with lots near by than a fancy one with nothing to do (and because they cater to business men with business accounts, you have to pay for some amenities. i.e. high speed internet at some hotels. I think FedEx has free high speed included in their hotel contracts.)

TipsyMcStagger

Unfortunatley, UPS does not allow us to drop trips. You can only trade with open time or another pilot.

The only other options are to call in sick or request personal leave of absence.

I'm really surprised this wasn't addressed in the new contract.

Tipsy

Freightpuppy

Amen bro!!!!

tomgoodman

Beware! Even "100% funded" only means that there SHOULD be enough money to pay the future obligations BASED ON THEIR CURRENT PROJECTIONS.
Some companies used wildly optimistic fund growth estimates and put a lot of the money into high-yield/high-risk investments. Then they were "shocked, SHOCKED" when the plan turned out to be less than 50% funded.

Maddog39

Warren Buffet said he wouold like to make the percetage return on his investments which FedEx claims in their forecast for the FedEx retirement funds. I believe this was two years ago in an article in the WSJ.

MD114Ever

The biggest differences in A and B fund money is that A fund money is a promise to be paid when you retire and B fund money is yours the minute it shows up in your 401 account.

As a younger pilot, I like the UPS formula better than the FDX formula. More money now, less reliance on a promise 20 years down the road.

767pilot

I think that they do allow us to, you just have to ask and get their permission. That is the way it works on paper at least. I don't think that any of us do ask, because the answer will probably be no, and then if you call in sick on that day you may have to answer to someone.

767pilot

I think ANC is full up for a while. They are going to need FE's everywhere else as our herpes engineers retire with their new wealth

In short, an A plan is a typical traditional pension. Figure on 1% of what you make at retirement times the number of years that you have been there. That really is a simple explanation and there is more to it than that, but if you retire with 250,000 and have been there 30 years, you will make 2500*30=$75,000. On top of that, all pay up to the government limit (225,000 now) will get a 12% contribution from the company towards your B plan. This is a cash plan, your money right away in an account like a 401k
We are fully funded and our A plan will now be in the same account as the managers, which should give us some security against money business.

Internationally we stay in very nice hotels, domesticlly they are sort of so so, but generally good enough

what is your other choice that you are looking at?