No that money is already pretax. Should be just like making a rollover to an IRA. (Which I wouldn't be surprised if that was an option when the DC plan is terminated.) The total amount deposited by you and Company cannot exceed $52,000 in 2014. If you are under 50 then you can put a maximum of $17,500 in the 401k. If you turn 50 or older in 2014, you can make catchup contributions totaling $5,500. So anyone turning 50 or older can contribute a total of $22,000 a year. The Company will put in their 15% until reaching a total of $52,000 for the year. If you will exceed that amount for whatever reason the excess will be taxed and paid to you as income.

To me, it doesn't matter if that $52,000 comes from my contribution or the Companys. Whatever money that is in excess of the $52,000 comes back as taxed income anyway.

Denny

 

Gloopy,

Great Post. The company was "hoping" for a different interpretation of 117. Well we know how that goes, "hope" is not a strategy, hell it ain't even a tactic.

The one thing that I think some are missing is that some Pilots are saying even with 19 hours for long call they are not required to acknowledge until 3 hours of report. While this is our contractual obligation it is a means to an end - the means to not be on a short leash on long call. And besides 3 hours does not work with 117.

Is this our (Pilots) problem - No it is the companies problem, but if anyone thinks we (DALPA) will win a grievance when a pilot is given 19 hours notice for long call and waits until 3 hours prior to acknowledge they are crazy. Before 117 we had a 9 hour window which was applied via the "NLT 3 hours to report" verbiage.

It is quite reasonable to replace the "NLT 3 hours until report" verbiage with "within 9 hours."

Now before I am tar and feathered I think SDs memo was total BS. Management fiat does not cut it - we have an agreed to contract. If they want to change it they better start bargaining, but until then the company will have to suck it up and assign long call trips further out - too bad they should have planned better. They will need to carry more reserves because they will need to rely more heavily on short-calls and even green-slips. Short notice IAs in my opinion will no longer be legal. The company wants 117 to be neutral manning wise - well apparently it may require us to hire more Pilots.

I still think, and hope, the union and the company will come to an agreement and in my opinion the agreement should benefit the Pilot group with a longer long-call leash.

Scoop

 

Does that same $17,500 limit exist if you're putting post-tax money in via the Roth option?

 

Yes. It applies to all 401k contributions whether pre or post tax. Even if you work for 2 separate companies, the total amount you can contribute is $17,500 plus the $5,500 if age 50 or older.

http://taxes.about.com/od/retirement...ion-limits.htm

Denny

 

Scoop,

If as you said, a grievance filed for the scenario you painted would not stand much of a chance of being successful, what's a union or pilot to do? SD has made the company's position clear, and you can pretty much count on getting a call from the CPO as well as getting a PD put on your schedule as a result if you use the contract in a way you're free to do.

My take (tell me where I'm wrong):

So pilot A doesn't acknowledge a trip until 3+30 before sign in and gets a PD put on his schedule--doesn't get paid. How many pilots are going to do this? My guess is not many. DALPAs not going to pay pilots who decide to do it the anti-SD way; there's no point after a day or two when others are falling in line. The company will come down on those who use the PWA to its fullest and pilots will fall in line. Unless DALPA were to make as strong a drive for getting all reserve pilots to wait until 3hr plus > 1 min to acknowledge as they had to get us to vote yes for the TA, there's not going to be enough pressure on the company to come to the table on this issue.

It would appear that the company played hardball on this and won't suffer much. They will probably want to clean this item up in the next round of negotiations and claim they're giving something in return, but in reality you know they're not or they would have given it now. Maybe after a couple of weeks they'll give DALPA a little something after they show them it wasn't all that big of a deal (since we didn't put up much of a fight).

I think the company looked at the data and saw that most pilots acknowledge trips pretty early on. My category typically got them out about 14-15 hours before sign in.

 

Thanks. Good link. Question I have to ask the Fidelity guy when I call to talk about the transition to just the DPSP: How do I determine what portion of my DPSP is Roth and what isn't Roth?

 

You can't find that out at:

https://401k.fidelity.com/public/con.../Home/Landing/

?

I would think they would have that broken down.

Denny

 

Gunship,

You are not wrong, but I don't think you understand my point. If the company and the union do not come to agreement and they stick with requiring us to acknowledge long call trips within 2 or 3 hours then I think every reserve Pilot should acknowledge within the contractual requirement - if only to force the company to negotiate with the union. If this makes reserve pilots not legally rested for the trip per 117 then too bad for the company. A company memo does not undue our contract.

If on the other hand, the company assigns long call trips 19 hours out then I think a reasonable Pilot would acknowledge within 9 hours as before 117. To me this is the key - to allow long call Pilots a long call leash. Like I said, the NLT 3 hours wording in our contract is a means to an end. The desired end is a 9 hour response window.

I see the companies interpretation as unworkable and unreasonable, but I also think that Pilots who want to wait until 3 hours prior if they have 19 hours notice are just as unreasonable. Does anyone really think we would win a grievance if given 19 hours notice prior to reporting and we insist on waiting until 3 hours prior to acknowledging? I realize this is what our contract says, but the change in the law eliminates the option of a 3 hour prior acknowledgement.

The bottom line is that the law has changed. Acknowledging long call assignments in 2 or 3 hours aint gonna cut it - sorry SD. If the company is willing to work with us and push the assignment of trips further out - say 19 hours, then we should work with them. If they insist on a quick long call acknowledgement then we should comply with our contractual requirements.


Scoop

 

Do you think the company has put off hiring as long as they have because they thought that they would have added crew scheduling abilities/efficiencies through their interpretation of 117?
I'm wondering if between 117 and a 7th short call day if the company perceives a leaner staffing model than actually needed. I find it surprising that we have been canceling flights because of lack of crews. I always thought that kind of thing rarely, if ever, happened at a mainline company especially with our current management team.

 

The part of the G/S trip that flies this month will pay double. The part that flies into next month will pay single, on top of the resv guarr if on X days (which you will get back). If on resv days during those days, nothing. It's like being called out to fly a trip.