I talked to a fnwa captain in the MEX van a few days ago. He's got 2 years to go and is not taking the buy out. "Not quite enough" was his take. He's got a story like most as he was with Eastern. My guess is under 200 take it. Hope I'm wrong.

T- Budakon is the Japanese Cow Palace.

I think we can at least be certain he was a Delta Employee.

He's probably "enacting its plan."

IMHO (I have then occasionally), this is the primary reason fNWA WB Captains aren't diving, fishing, traveling and/or hunting their final days.

You'll know him by his hand shake. Its like grabbing a bunch of bananas.

OK off subject question...... When one has a reserve line that also includes vacation I understand that it pays more than a straight reserve line but I can't find out what the difference would be. Can anybody guide me in the right direction?

Now as for the early out, well I haven't flown with any 747 captains that are going to take it....

Everyone says they are working too hard and it takes away from your retirement years. I really believe our work rules allow us to work as little as we want - no minimum flying to stay full time (I believe you could drop to zero if you want although I'm sure there would be something in the mail about paying insurance, etc). If you're a very senior guy and you don't need a ton more money to retire it wouldn't be too bad to fly 2-3 3 day trips (or a bunch of turnarounds if you're NB domestic) domestically. Or, the 777 Sydney trips were 4 day trips worth like 36 hours so you could work one of those a month (drop the other one if you had two). This is a good job if you don't need to get 80+ hours just to pay the bills, put the kids through school and save for retirement - why retire early?

Yeah, I don't know who that guy is either. But, he does have great taste in women AND firearms:cool:

Ferd

That is actually good news IMO. If more junior guys take it.. i.e. younger guys.. that will generate better movement for a more sustained period.

Hopefully all the guys that go will be in the 58-62 range..

I think we have 85 mandatory retirements for 2013. All of those guys would be dumb not to take it if they qualify for anywhere near 39 weeks (9 months) of pay. Staying just so you could drop to zero or even just dropping way down (remember, that is dependant on the company's staffing tolerances anyway and could go away at any time) in your last year when you could essetially drop to absolute zero (retire) for the whole year, guaranteed, and get paid for 9 months would be a blunder of History Channel proportions. That said, there will be guys who lose money just to put on the uniform because they don't know what else to do. So let's figure 3/4 of that group take it.

For 2014 I think the mandatory number is somewhere around 150. I estimate maybe a third to a half (max) will take it. So we're at aqbout 130 or so. In 2014-2015 and beyond, the mandatory numbers start to accelerate rapidly but the actuarials of the early out start to diminish rapidly as well. I'm guessing maybe 50 from all other years total take it, and that's probably a very high guess. So 200 max, but probably 175 or so.

Of course if I was putting money on it, I'd guess just to be safe.
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