Captain Upgrade Times?
10-28-2024 | 06:05 PM
#41
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10-28-2024 | 09:37 PM
#42
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Vacation pay, training pay, international pay, reroute pay, profit sharing, paid trip drops, 415C overage pay and GS's. I broke 600k easily on a 334 dollar an hour rate. I was not close the to the highest paid pilot in my category. The guy who was probably at the top was about 50% in category. Keep in mind that when most pilots quote their pay rate they use their W2. They omit things like their 401K contributions.
That 438 dollar an hour rate becomes 525 an hour after you hit the 415C limit on international pay. Many hit that at the end of the first quarter. A 4 day GS with 25 hours pay is worth 26,000.00 dollars. 1 of those a quarter boosts your pay 100,000 a year! Also keep in mind it boosts your disability over 4000 a month if you do that. Thats the best disability insurance you can get and you only need to fly those 4 extra trips 1 out of every 3 years.
Look at a low work tolerance 330CA. Flies a basic schedule of 960 hour a hear. First 6 months gets 214,000K and hits 415C limit. Second 6 months makes 250K. He is at 474,000. He only gets say 2 reroutes as they happen less on international. Say 40 hours pay. He gets two 3 day trips dropped and WS over it. Picks up another 40 hours. Gets 15 hours training pay and flies a bit extra in his 5 vacation months. Let's say 5 extra those months for 25 total. Could ba a lot more! That's another 55,000 or so a year in pay. He's at 524,000. 8% profit sharing puts another 41k in the mix. 565 K now and he flies 1 good GS that year. Boom! 600,000.00
That 438 dollar an hour rate becomes 525 an hour after you hit the 415C limit on international pay. Many hit that at the end of the first quarter. A 4 day GS with 25 hours pay is worth 26,000.00 dollars. 1 of those a quarter boosts your pay 100,000 a year! Also keep in mind it boosts your disability over 4000 a month if you do that. Thats the best disability insurance you can get and you only need to fly those 4 extra trips 1 out of every 3 years.
Look at a low work tolerance 330CA. Flies a basic schedule of 960 hour a hear. First 6 months gets 214,000K and hits 415C limit. Second 6 months makes 250K. He is at 474,000. He only gets say 2 reroutes as they happen less on international. Say 40 hours pay. He gets two 3 day trips dropped and WS over it. Picks up another 40 hours. Gets 15 hours training pay and flies a bit extra in his 5 vacation months. Let's say 5 extra those months for 25 total. Could ba a lot more! That's another 55,000 or so a year in pay. He's at 524,000. 8% profit sharing puts another 41k in the mix. 565 K now and he flies 1 good GS that year. Boom! 600,000.00
All while baking profit sharing into his income expectations.
I guess we had different experiences in the WB categories. I was only there for 3 years or so, but I was never rerouted, never got a single GS despite having a blanket request in, and never had a trip dropped. Had some LCA trips but it always just made a 3 man trip into a 4. I don’t doubt that outliers exist and some people are making crazy money. I just don’t think 114 hours a month is the norm.
Heck even in the narrow bodies, I’ve only hit that credit once in my career. Maybe I’m just a slacker
10-29-2024 | 03:13 AM
#43
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Joined: Dec 2007
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From: DAL 330
Its a tale of two Pilots. Senior WB A and Junior WB A. Currently GS's are slowing quite a bit so many junior WB A will credit on the bottom of the LCW and get zero GS's. Senior WB A can credit much more and easily pick up a GS a quarter.
Sailing must have had bad luck if he got rerouted that much on International. 2 + Years year and zero reroutes for me. But one of my superpowers appears to be an immunity to RRs. Even as a 737 A for 6 years I think I was only rerouted 2 or 3 times. Being LAX based and generally avoiding ATL seemed to enable this.
Sailings main point, however is very valid - it is relatively easy to make more than 1000 X base pay when you factor in "total compensation."
Scoop
Sailing must have had bad luck if he got rerouted that much on International. 2 + Years year and zero reroutes for me. But one of my superpowers appears to be an immunity to RRs. Even as a 737 A for 6 years I think I was only rerouted 2 or 3 times. Being LAX based and generally avoiding ATL seemed to enable this.
Sailings main point, however is very valid - it is relatively easy to make more than 1000 X base pay when you factor in "total compensation."
Scoop
10-29-2024 | 03:42 AM
#44
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All this talk of how easy it is to make $600k makes me wonder about the $/QOL ratio.
Obviously this depends on the pilot, but when does the $ eaten by taxes vs. just enjoying time off become not worth it to you?
For me, it’s around the top of the 24% bracket. Add in state taxes (most but not all states), Medicare and it’s surcharge taxes, phaseout of the child tax credit close to the top of the 24% bracket (if you have kids) and once you’re in the 32% bracket you can very easily send close to 1/2 your income to Uncle Sam. With our ability to “manipulate” how much we work, it just doesn’t seem worth it to work yourself into the ground once you’ve made enough to cover your expense and savings goals.
I know for me, there is a tremendous difference in QOL working 8-10 days a month vs. 16-18. Like a huge difference. Just curious how others view it?
Obviously this depends on the pilot, but when does the $ eaten by taxes vs. just enjoying time off become not worth it to you?
For me, it’s around the top of the 24% bracket. Add in state taxes (most but not all states), Medicare and it’s surcharge taxes, phaseout of the child tax credit close to the top of the 24% bracket (if you have kids) and once you’re in the 32% bracket you can very easily send close to 1/2 your income to Uncle Sam. With our ability to “manipulate” how much we work, it just doesn’t seem worth it to work yourself into the ground once you’ve made enough to cover your expense and savings goals.
I know for me, there is a tremendous difference in QOL working 8-10 days a month vs. 16-18. Like a huge difference. Just curious how others view it?
10-29-2024 | 04:49 AM
#45
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Joined: Feb 2008
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All this talk of how easy it is to make $600k makes me wonder about the $/QOL ratio.
Obviously this depends on the pilot, but when does the $ eaten by taxes vs. just enjoying time off become not worth it to you?
For me, it’s around the top of the 24% bracket. Add in state taxes (most but not all states), Medicare and it’s surcharge taxes, phaseout of the child tax credit close to the top of the 24% bracket (if you have kids) and once you’re in the 32% bracket you can very easily send close to 1/2 your income to Uncle Sam. With our ability to “manipulate” how much we work, it just doesn’t seem worth it to work yourself into the ground once you’ve made enough to cover your expense and savings goals.
I know for me, there is a tremendous difference in QOL working 8-10 days a month vs. 16-18. Like a huge difference. Just curious how others view it?
Obviously this depends on the pilot, but when does the $ eaten by taxes vs. just enjoying time off become not worth it to you?
For me, it’s around the top of the 24% bracket. Add in state taxes (most but not all states), Medicare and it’s surcharge taxes, phaseout of the child tax credit close to the top of the 24% bracket (if you have kids) and once you’re in the 32% bracket you can very easily send close to 1/2 your income to Uncle Sam. With our ability to “manipulate” how much we work, it just doesn’t seem worth it to work yourself into the ground once you’ve made enough to cover your expense and savings goals.
I know for me, there is a tremendous difference in QOL working 8-10 days a month vs. 16-18. Like a huge difference. Just curious how others view it?
10-29-2024 | 12:18 PM
#47
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From: Enoch Powell Enthusiast
We're the longshoremen of the skies.
10-29-2024 | 12:20 PM
#48
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From: Enoch Powell Enthusiast
10-29-2024 | 01:06 PM
#49
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If we had the longshoreman's union, we'd be flying with a flight engineer and radio operator still. 30,000 pilot seniority list.
10-29-2024 | 02:00 PM
#50
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From: DAL FO
To the point of this thread, it’s entirely possible to have a very comfortable life here in the right seat if you keep your expenses under somewhat reasonable control - as in not getting to the point in your life where you think $20k/mo isn’t a lot of money.
There is no amount of money that you can make at Delta (or anywhere) that can’t be vaporized by an out of balance run rate.
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