Great corrections.

PS was intentionally left out of my list. It's not something I'm comfortable trading for a pay rate increase. It may be worth a partial exchange of PS for a variable annuity in MY NAME, invested in a mix of equity index funds that I control. Again, it must not be traded for pay rates.

Back to the Survey Topic
 

While I agree that participation is important, please realize the survey serves a dual purpose. 100% pilot involvement shows management the pilot group is heavily engaged in securing meaningful gains. The secondary purpose is a clear management of expectations by DALPA. The survey reaches everyone who clicks on the link. It subtly conveys that we must make concessions in multiple areas. Google the term "push polling".

Post-Retirement Annuity
 

Since the annuity question is in the survey and pilots bring it up in different threads, I'm going to ask a question that has not been answered to my satisfaction. 415C limits effectively cap tax-differed contributions to our defined contribution plan. Even at current pay rates, most captains and many first officers who contribute employee maximums will hit the $53,000 annual contribution limit. How would a company-provided, post-retirement annuity be treated by the IRS? Can an annuity plan be crafted that would not detract from the existing DC plan? It would be useful to fully understand the implications prior to answering the survey question.

My military retirement did not stop accruing while I hit the 415c limit at dal. In truth I don't know the answer. But, it seems to me the two are decoupled, ref fedex and American.

It would have to be in the company's name/control to avoid the IRS issues, I think.

We all know how well that worked out last time. No thanks. I'd rather take a tax hit now and keep the company out of it. $1 for me and $1 for the govt is better than $2 controlled by the company.

How about GSA published per diem rates on all trips. That avoids tax issues and doesn't show up as hourly pay rate for contract comparison. The only downside is for the FPL gang...

The company could fully fund our HSA/HRA accounts which are nice to have in retirement..

That would be huge

So 5.15 per day for vacation and training.
Fully funded HSA's/HRA's.


I'm going to do the math. I just want for curiosity's sake to see what happens if you do 8/6/3/3, same PS PLUS monkey with the soft money if you can get to 1987 x 30 years of COLA.

You do realize an HSA is vastly different from an HRA? HSA you will have in retirement. My understanding of the HRA is that, once you are no longer in that plan (retirement), you will lose your HRA dollars. Funds in an HRA stay with the company when the employee leaves.

Denny