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What is the $15,000 in Blue? It reads like a "ratification" bonus for existing pilots.... am I reading this wrong? Has anyone received that $15k yet?

They have 'till roughly July 15 to pay it assuming you signed June 1. What are you trying to buy?

What are those 750 hours required for captain pay? 121? With Envoy?
...does military count? That would be an unbeatable deal if it did.

I found my own answer in 121.436 -- only 500 military hours count towards those hours.

Probably just going into savings in case I'm not here in 2 years and need to pay it back, but i was just curious because nobody ever mentions it. So if a year 3 FO upgrades to CA, they get $15k plus $30K this year?

Don’t they take Social Security and Medicare out of bonuses in addition to Federal tax? You can recoup the Federal on your next tax return but I doubt you would get the Medicare and Social Security back, so you end up paying back more than you receive.

Yeah but less than a year ago they were handing out furloughs. Cash in hand now always beats they chance of having to pay it back. if I'm not here and do have to pay it back, I'll be at a better place and the loss to ss/mc will be a nuisance not a major burden.

^^^^. This right here.

Also talk to a CPA about filing an amended return or other strategy to effectively get credit for the previous taxes paid. There may be a way to negate the effect.

Bottom line is INVEST the bonuses don’t spend them.

Word. I've always been pro all bonuses and pro getting as much in the bank as quickly as possible. You know what happens to all these agreements when AAG goes bankrupt? They get renegotiated. Grab every bag. It's not like they're asking you to pay them interest as long as you cough up, so with the real rate of inflation you're actually only paying them back 85% or so assuming you keep it a year. Everyone should be on Plan B turbo bonus or whatever it's called imo. Dollars will never be worth as much as they are right now again.

How would you recommend investing that bonus? If you put it in a high yield savings account you will be lucky to get 1% interest, and you will owe tax on that. If you invest in the stock market, you may find the market is down just when you need to repay it. Meanwhile you lose 7.98% to Social Security and Medicare, and 22% to Federal taxes that may take you a year to get back.

Depends on your risk tolerance. Just wondering whether those golden handcuffs are worth it.

How you invest your money is up to you. Ask one of our genius short timer FOs waiting for his class date at Delta which is the hottest cryptocurrency. The point is money in the market is better than money out of the market, and money today is better than money tomorrow.