This question may get me a verbal lashing here...lol...but is this a "good" retirement relative to the other majors? I'll never see 30 yrs (about to retire from military), more like 20, but just curious what the public thinks about ~140k/yr as an airline captain pension. Terrible, awesome, somewhere in between?

Well when you consider that the pension is IN ADDITION to a 12% (UPS) or 9% (FDX) DC to the 401k then yeah, it’s very good compared to what other airlines have (16% DC only).

The problem is that they came up with the pension number - for FedEx - in 1999 and now in 2022 we still have the same maximum benefit despite 23 years of inflation eroding the real value. BTW FedEx maxes at 25 years vs. 30 at UPS.

At 3.8% inflation (average over last 40 yrs) the present value of 139500 in 30 yrs is $45500.

Exactly. The pension needs to be tied to the IRS limit. That would yield $230k today which is roughly equivalent to the value of $130k in 1999 when the rate was set by FedEx.

The pension has to be tied to limits or a yearly increase. 130k benefit in 20-30 MORE years….is garbage.

Almost all airlines have dumped their traditional pensions. FedEx and UPS still have them…


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For now, it’s industry leading. And by that, I mean better than Fedex, and nobody else has a pension other than our two companies. Hopefully Fedex leap-frogs ours and raises that bar during their current negotiations. A rising tide, and all that……

Hmm. Not too sure about that. Even without a COLA in forever, our pension will pay $130,000 after 25 YOS, where UPS will pay $116,250. And FedEx’s $130,000 goes for either seat. What does a UPS FO who retires after 30 years get? After 25?

Perfect, thanks for the info guys. In between this post and my pension question earlier, I received a CJO from UPS! pretty pumped (i know i know...this is a FEDEX board!! but still, exciting for me!)

Congrats! That’s a great company and you’ll do well there.