Originally Posted by GMK35 (Post 3597686)

Assumptions:

- 2023 mil pay with no bonuses/retirement considered
- Using non-locality BAH (which is going to be lower than what 99.9% of guys coming here are actually getting)
- Some sort of Tricare (so not accounting for paying into DAL healthcare)
- New TA pay and ALV of 80
- No paycheck withdrawals to things like 401Ks, IRAs, etc.

1st year pay FO: $8640 pre-tax
Get out as O-5: $13.3K/mo pre-tax / $4660 diff
Get out as O-4 at commitment expiraiton: $11.5K/mo pre-tax / $2860 diff

Now, those diffs above are PRE-TAX and not representative of take-home diff. 55% of mil pay for a pilot is non-taxable, where as 100% of my DAL pay is taxable. Spitballing, but you can easily add $1K (potentially even more) to those diffs when finally accounting for the tax disparity (and God forbid you made a clean break from the mil and no longer have Tricare). That's how "$4-6K" was born. And unless the new TA fixes it, you'll still have a 1-1.5 months of basically no pay during the training to OE-complete transition, then the pay **** ups you have no SA on and don't catch, etc.

The point of all this is for anyone bailing on the mil for Delta, internalize this and go into it with eyes wide open. It will be the best life decision you've ever made, and the above is only a short-term problem in the grand scheme of things, but it can be a huge problem if you haven't planned accordingly. By the way, now throw in you're moving and buying a house all while in this financial point in your life (which many mil dudes do, because the **** if you're going to live in XYZ location the mil last put you at, either by choice or because you're overseas).

Originally Posted by UberDriver (Post 3597844)

Math checks but id add the 401K DC of roughly another $1400ish of total comp for the airlines.

Meanwhile those in the blended mil system are likely maxing out their Roth’s and sending $1800 monthly into retirement accounts. So the takehomes are really close actually.

Point is for the modern 0-4 at a 10 yr commitment the gap is definitely not as wide as it use to be, almost gone completely.

Originally Posted by palooza (Post 3597631)

2nd this motion. Headset is just more trash to haul around. Ship sets on for about a total of 4 hours of a 6-day trip.

Originally Posted by crewdawg (Post 3598099)

3rd! It has nothing to do with being cheap, I own a set of Bose and 3 sets of David Clarks...I just don't care to lug around headsets. There are so many other dirty things we touch daily, your cellphone being the most dirty of them all, and money being not far behind. Wipe the headsets down with some sanitary wipes before each use and it's likely more clean than so many other things you touch daily.

Originally Posted by PilotBases (Post 3598111)

Who uses cash? :D Only thing I use it on are van tips.

Originally Posted by Hotel Kilo (Post 3598129)

you can't make it rain without it.

Originally Posted by DWC CAP10 USAF (Post 3598145)

Without going into lots of public math (always bad idea for me as a paste eating ex fighter pilot), here are my numbers. I retired in 2017 from AD as an O-5. My base pay + BAS + BAH + Flt Pay - taxes and deductions was approx $9.6K/month, so $115K/year

Back in 2017, DL training salary was $4800/month and then first year pay rate was $85.71/hr. I was a commuter so I basically just flew my schedule...wasn't doing rolling thunder, but I did pick up a GS or 2 here or there if they were conveniently aligned with my commuting. I would say I did maybe 2 - 5 in a year, but definitely not more than 6 - 9 in a year...I would call my green slip take rate as slightly above well below average!

In 2018 (8 months on 1st year pay and then 4 on 2nd year), I grossed $111K and netted $89K

In 2019 (8 months on 2nd year and 4 months on 3rd year), I grossed $180K and netted $128K. This did include a little over $14K profit sharing (paid in Feb 2019 for the 2018 calendar year).

Not sure what an O-5 makes now a days (my DD-214 blanket shields me from caring about such information), but with the fact that the new hire salary is going away and the 18% raise, I'm guessing it's still around 2'ish years until your airline take-home is greater than or equal to AD military take-home.

Originally Posted by PilotBases (Post 3598133)

Throwing credit cards in the air isn’t as much fun, true.