The real issue is how do you define "restoration?"

Is "restoration" every reserve being on 24/7 short call, like it was several decades ago?

Is it every reserve being on short call at 0300 on your first on call day...like it was 20 years ago when I started here? (imagine if we negotiated that now; riots would ensue)

Is it not being able to bid for CQ, nor have vacation slide, nor being able to positive space deviate from DH?

Is it ATL commuters having to pay for their own hotel for all training, because a hotel is only provided for "training away from your base?"


Would all those guys on Chit Chat (I assume, as I have never once been to that toxic site) prefer to go back to those "good ol' days" just to get a traditional DB back (which WILL be terminated again) and claim "restoration?"

I surely hope not. The "good ol' days?" I think nyet. Give me the good newer days, and lets all work to make them even better.


Edit: I realize that *some* of the old days truly did have some superior elements, including a DB that at that time paid out reliably. But pining for the good old days is a fool's errand. It ain't happening, and focusing on the past at the expense of a possibly superior future is pointless.

Retiree health insurance is understandable from your perspective. I think with the federal government in turmoil over the future of healthcare, there isn't clarity on the need. The age 65 retirement dove tails with Medicare and with the company hoping to retain pilots to age 65 to staff the airline, I see this a potentially expensive ask for an aggregate group that is getting younger. Just my $.02.

While we're on the subject, the pay raise for next contract should be in the form of higher DC. Helps younger folks max out earlier in their career and gets older folks maxed out earlier in the calendar year which would be an effective pay raise.
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As a military retiree I [for the moment] have pretty great healthcare. There are quite a few of us at DL.

Consequently healthcare isnt a super high contract priority for me. I concede that I may be shortsighted on this. What changes do your foresee that would motivate this chunk of our pilot group?

First is my first kid was born in the mid 90's and it cost me nothing. By the time my last kid was born my wife said if cost us this much we would have only had one. This has been a huge erosion of QOL that seems to go unnoticed.

My first kid was born at my former regional several years ago. Cost me $15. My second was born while at Delta. Cost me better than $6000.

I've been saying this for as long as I've been here. What's the point of making so much money if we have to spend large chunks of it on our own healthcare?

If the company won't talk about lowering premiums and deductibles, one option is to propose they fully fund the HSAs to the max every year without these silly metrics to meet.

There are also quite a few of us here at DL who are not military or military retirees. Healthcare is a super high contract priority for a lot of us. Delta is now hiring a lot (70%+) of regional/non-military guys who do not have the healthcare options that you and others have had in the past. We want healthcare and we want it at a reasonable price.

As WhiskeyDelta said (and I have no idea what regional he worked for) but I had a child at my regional airline and from pregnancy to birth it cost me a single co-pay of $15.

At Delta that same birth is in excess of $5,000. Premiums here are insanely high, coverage is not good, and deductibles are high as well.

In future contracts you are going to see a lot more of us who treat insurance as a big ticket item.

We basically have catastrophic coverage through UHC. Totally unacceptable.

Add up the cost of your regional PPO premiums plus the $15 you spent vs the HSA premiums plus the $6000.

I prefer the tax benefits and flexibility of HSAs vs paying higher premiums on PPOs and then that money is gone forever.

MD-90 going bye-bye?
 

I am paying only about $50 less a month in premiums for the Gold HSA at Delta versus for that PPO plan at my regional. Not even a close comparison. I was spoiled beyond belief with that great plan.

Edit: after the quick math you proposed, it was $5000 cheaper at my regional for a kid. Bottom line, we have room for great improvement in our plans.