The downside of trading PS for payrates has been explained to you several times, but it seems you have not yet grasped why it is bad. Here is a real world example of why it is bad.

IF we would have kept PS in C2012 instead of trading it for pay rates, our current hourly rate would be EXACTLY the same as it is today because of 3B4 and our PS would be HIGHER. I am pleased our negotiation team understands this concept and isn't selling PS for pay rates.

Exactly. In other words, we gave it away for nothing!

Longcall, can you explain this to me? Mine's not lost. I'm still getting the pay. What are you talking about?

This isn't true. Our pay rates would be 2% lower because we wouldn't have done the conversion. We also may not have gotten the 3B4 raises because the raise is the lesser of the weighted average of United and American 757 rate or the company raise to the non-contracts. You have to answer what the weighted average of American and United is before you can make this statement.

If we were better paid, which I believe we were, you are totally wrong.

In other words, you missed the "lesser" in Section 3.B.4. Oops.

We are negotiating now, among other things for payrates we want. Our ask is compared to our peer's payrates. We are going to get a contract based on our peer's payrates.

We are not going to get our peer's rates plus a few extra percent because we sold some PS to get our current rates. We are just going to get their rates plus or minus.

So every time you sell PS for payrates, you lose that money the next contract negotiating cycle. You get the extra pay for the couple of years in between contracts but the next time you negotiate new rates, that PS given away is lost.

So, yes you are losing the PS you sold for payrates in C2012.