Always turns out bad for pilots.

 

It was a joke.

 

I'd say its great for the majority of our pilots who would otherwise use retirement money for non-retirement purposes.

 

I beg to differ. Plenty of pilots are capable of managing their own money. The ones who aren't could learn in less time than it takes to study for 1 CQ cycle.

 

So (some) people need to be saved from themselves?

That’s pretty gross, and honestly, offensive. Who gets to say what the best use of compensation is? You? The union? The government?

If some people are stupid and p*ss away their money on dumb stuff, that’s on them. We don’t all need to wear diapers because you’re too stupid to manage your money.

 

Who cares what people use their money on? Why is it any of your business?

If you’re so concerned with how people spend their money, how about we all just let the government take care of us? The State could plan all of our retirements for us, that way nobody would use their retirement money for non-retirement purposes, like opening a business or buying real estate

 

Who decides what is my retirement money? You or me?

 

Here is a post from I think the same statement you made in the past. Please list at least the most onerous work rule changes the Moakies brought you in the recovery from the bankruptcy.

In 2007 Delta’s cost per block hour for pilots was 470.00. In 2019 it was 1239.00. The 2019 cost was probably the highest pilot block hour cost at any airline world wide and did not include profit sharing which would have elevated us even higher. That’s the value of knocking out timely contracts that compound. You also have to understand the RLA and how it functions. It flat out blocks grand slams.
As to your assertion that other parts of the contract have been neglected the DC plan went from 9 to 16%. Sick leave went from 65 hours to 270. Reroute pay improved dramatically. Greenslips went from 150 to 200%. Restrictions on greenslips in months with training or vacation were removed. Reserve duty rigs were improved to match line holders. Reserve pay was increased from a flat 70 hours to a average of 76. We retained the best crew augmentation policies world wide while almost everyone else caved. We improved disability from 40 hours a month pay to 50%FAE including profit sharing and made it fully pensionable. We increased min layover times substantially. We added more reserve days off and obtained early release options. We added a average daily guarantee. We improved on duty guarantees after midnight. We added time limits for return to base on reroutes. We added a enhanced disability account. We increased vacation and training pay. Increased distributed training pay. The above is off the top of my head and probably about ⅓ of the improvements since bankruptcy. The work rule changes alone reduced our productivity 20% from 2007.

 

Sailing, thanks for the pilot cost per block hour. Any chance you have that as a passenger seat mile metric. This is an important metric when considering WB vs NB rates.

 

So is your position that a professional, such as ourselves, should be on the hook in their off time to buy real estate, start a side gig, or otherwise find a wiz-bang (likely high risk) way to fund a reasonable retirement?

Have you forgotten that professional pilots used to show up to work, fly their trips, and 25 years later belly up to a 60% FAE retirement. No extra effort required.

Some basic math (and realistic assumptions) prove that, even with higher DC contributions and additional individual deferrals, a 401k can never get us there unless you happen to hit the equivalent of a TSLA or AMZN at just the right moment. I don’t want to own a business or buy red-state real estate. I want to fly airplanes and expect to have a comfortable retirement as part of the deal, just like generations of pilots before me did.

Several have mentioned that the MBCBP is stealing their excess, but the amount of excess received is driven directly by (1) 401k limits, (2) our DC contribution amount, and (3) any individual deferrals done prior to reaching 401k limits.

Is it possible that the current 401k limits and our current 16% contribution just happens to be the perfect nexus of factors which produces the perfect amount of DC excess cash for these individuals? If not, then why the reluctance to see DC cash allocated in an additional tax deferred option? And why not just take the 16% as cash in the first place? In that case the union may just need to publish an updated retirement guidebook that includes instructions on owning self storage facilities or mobile home parks.

This doesn’t seem like a productive road for a unionized group of professionals to go down, en masse.

Just food for thought.

Obviously having the ability to opt-out would be ideal, but I don’t see the angst in the union trying to provide a greater company-paid retirement benefit than we currently have. Is this not the way bargaining is supposed to work?

If there is a genuine uprising against the MBCBP amongst Delta pilots, then the message being sent is that we are good with 16% and a 401k for the rest of time, because increasing contributions will only drive more taxable income for most at this point, and there simply aren’t other tax-qualified options on the shelf offered by our benevolent government.