Prowler, PM sent

 

I was looking through this thread and I didn't see anything about avoiding HKG. I would absolutely love to work for FDX so on the app I naturally put that I would be interested in a foreign assignment. With that said CGN would be nice, but HKG would seem to be a hard sell to the family. So I was wondering how hard it is to avoid getting that as a base? Also if you got it as a base how do you get back/how often stateside?

 

You can not be sent there unless a volunteer. If they call and ask will you go to Hong Kong tell them the truth. Personally for 5 million bucks for a 20 year career, you can put up with anything for two years. But your odds of going are slim and none.

 

Busdriver12, PM sent

 

Sent you a PM C17MooseDriver on this subject. Thanks!

 

Very informative! Thank you for taking the time to answer the questions.

What is life like on reserve? Is it possible to lay low and fly little with seniority?

On the flip side. Is it possible to fly overtime? If so, what does it pay? Is there an override?

Thank you!

 

What is life like on reserve? You are in Memphis, it sucks. If you live there I guess reserve is OK

Is it possible to lay low and fly little with seniority? Yes, Seat dependent.

On the flip side. Is it possible to fly overtime? Yes

If so, what does it pay? Most "overtime" are trips added at straight pay. Some lines overlap months, if so, that is straight pay overtime built in. Draft (seta dependent) and Volunteer (rare) pays 150%.

Is there an override? Yes an international override of under $10 an hour.

Thank you! You are welcome.

 

Thanks! I guess my next question would be about the 401k. Is that 8% matched at 100%? And is that in addition to the pension plan?

 

Pension is the Pension. 2% X YOS X Average high five up to $260,000. For most pilots with 25 YOS it will be $130K, for 20 YOS it would top out at 104K.

401K is what you elect to put in pretax out of your monthly income with a max limit of $18K (24K over age 50) I think there is a $500.00 match in there from the company somewhere.

B Fund is a separate fund similar to a 401K, but different. The company contributes an additional 8% of your monthly pay into a parallel vanguard account. This 8% (eventually 9%) stops after your pay reaches $260K (or so) for the year. There are also other IRS limits that limit the total contributions to both the 401K and B Fund (plus a couple of other cats and dogs) to between 54 and 60K per year. As an aside senior Widebody FOs can probably max out these contributions fairly easily, or at least they will be able to when the payrates max out in 2020.

 

Got it! Thank you!