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BunkerF16 01-02-2018 08:17 AM


Originally Posted by BeatNavy (Post 2493764)
I question if your 18 days off a month on your initial award or if it’s how much you actually take off and are at the house, and how much RSA/VDA that includes. The math doesn’t work out for me. I know a lot of your trips get bought for IOE, but it isn’t very easy to double dip over that timeframe here...and then you are picking up average/not that great trips from opentime after your initial good schedule gets bought.

At $149/hour working 12 days a month, or 144 days a year, how do you credit enough to make over $300k? Even if you got every 10x 8 hour day trip bought a month and came in on other days picking up average 5hr/day trips, that’s impossible. 80x12=960 theoretical max hours bought, or $143k...and that’s assuming every one of your trips gets bought. You’re saying you then pick up $160k worth of trips only working 12 days a month? That’s another 1,073 hours of credit at your pay rate, from open time. If you’re selling back 10 hrs a month of PTO (btw that’s not compensation, it's your vacation and sick time), then you still need 917 hours of credit to hit your $300k, or 70-75 hours a month, from the opentime scraps. Here’s my math based on what little I know about your schedule/pay, making the wild assumption that every single awarded trip is a bought 8hr day trip.

$300,000/$149=~2,000 hours of credit per year.
80hrs x 12 months = 960 hours of max bought credit. Call it 1,000.
PTOSB/vac at 10/month = 180 hrs
820/12=~70 hours a month you then credit from opentime. At 5 hrs a day that’s working 14 days, at 6 a day that’s 11 days. It is rarely feasible to count on 6+ hour average days from opentime. And it’s hardly believable that every single one of your trips gets bought. So where is the extra credit coming from?

To non-JB pilots, pay no attention to this data point. This is an outlier among outliers, and I’m no viper pilot, but I can’t make the math work. Bunk makes $149/hour with substandard work rules. I don’t know any other JetBlue pilot who credits anywhere near the amount required to make $320k on $149/hr, even senior FOs who bid with check airmen, and certainly no commuters who get 18 days at the house. Only RSA/VDA hoors who live in base and are on crew services speeddial can predictably and consistently get premium/JRA credit to credit anywhere near that.

I'm sorry. I wasn't aware I was suppose to qualify my post. Am I senior in base at my position. Yes, I am. Does that allow me to double-dip and get days off that others junior to me may not be able to do? Probably. I know of a few who are close to my range (320 FOs) and one or two or higher than me. So while I may be "statistical" data point, I'm not by myself.

There are plenty of posts under the JetBlue file where you and BD can make sure to "educate" why JetBlue isn't the place you want them to be.

And for the record, I've NEVER picked up a VDA.

OldFlyGuy 01-02-2018 08:18 AM


Originally Posted by RJSAviator76 (Post 2492858)
Agreed. I also don't count per diem or retirement as income. I just followed the format of the guy that posted before me. 900 hours made me lazy on NYE! ;)

But yep... I worked hard alright. Planning on flying around 800 hours in 2018. We'll see what the totals bring next NYE.

Happy New Year!

I'm gonna disagree here. Since most of us fund our own retirements "B fund" money counts. Contribution % vary and some companies have caps. At DL flight pay and profit sharing are pensionable. If we hit the Federal limits on contributions we get the excess as cash: those $ count. Differences in per diem probably aren't going to make or break you. OFG

BeatNavy 01-02-2018 08:25 AM


Originally Posted by BunkerF16 (Post 2493805)
I'm sorry. I wasn't aware I was suppose to qualify my post. Am I senior in base at my position. Yes, I am. Does that allow me to double-dip and get days off that others junior to me may not be able to do? Probably.

There are plenty of posts under the JetBlue file where you and BD can make sure to "educate" why JetBlue isn't the place you want them to be.

And for the record, I've NEVER picked up a VDA.

I just want to know how you did it and how the math works out to $322k on $149/hour working only 150 days with our work rules, especially since double dipping is not very easy (ie not really being able to pick up over a bought day and getting the higher credits of the two trips). I wouldn’t have dissected it and taken (a lot of) my time to do the math on here if I wasn’t genuinely curious. This thread is supposed to be educational/comparative. Having that data is important since it’s such an outlier (but theoretically possible if you did it). So, can you shed light on your strategy/math to make 150 days of work turn into 2,000 hours of credit?

Bluedriver 01-02-2018 08:36 AM


Originally Posted by BunkerF16 (Post 2493805)
I'm sorry. I wasn't aware I was suppose to qualify my post. Am I senior in base at my position. Yes, I am. Does that allow me to double-dip and get days off that others junior to me may not be able to do? Probably. I know of a few who are close to my range (320 FOs) and one or two or higher than me. So while I may be "statistical" data point, I'm not by myself.

There are plenty of posts under the JetBlue file where you and BD can make sure to "educate" why JetBlue isn't the place you want them to be.

And for the record, I've NEVER picked up a VDA.

How about RSA?

Besides, you forgot to tell everyone you sold back all your vacation and sick time for the year and just how much of an outlier you are. Or that you are a double Dipper with check airmen.

All of those things are VERY important context that you conveniently left out and adds lots of "color" as to why you defend JetBlue Airways in the JB section.

Some of us are VERY angry about our crap pay and years of negotiations. Don't try to minimize us because you have a VERY special situation going.

BunkerF16 01-02-2018 08:51 AM


Originally Posted by BeatNavy (Post 2493814)
I just want to know how you did it and how the math works out to $322k on $149/hour working only 150 days with our work rules, especially since double dipping is not very easy (ie not really being able to pick up over a bought day and getting the higher credits of the two trips). I wouldn’t have dissected it and taken (a lot of) my time to do the math on here if I wasn’t genuinely curious. This thread is supposed to be educational/comparative. Having that data is important since it’s such an outlier (but theoretically possible if you did it). So, can you shed light on your strategy/math to make 150 days of work turn into 2,000 hours of credit?

Fair enough.

I bid CKA about 90% of my line, the other 10% I bid trips with soft time (SAN, SEA, AUA, CUN, etc).

I get 50-60% of my CKA trips bought. So on a month that I had an original bid of say 85 hours, with 18-19 days off, if I chose not to fly, that would end up being 3-4 days of flying with up to 25-26 days off. I then "double-dip" and pick up trips that fall into open time...usually the IROP-type pairings that have high credit and lots of DH attached to them. (No, I'm not attached to FLICA, don't have multiple phones, I don't have a BOT, and I'm not part of a cartel, so no need to reply BD.)

I sell back my PTO so that's a little over $30,000 all by itself, I can bid around the days I want off to take vacation, or even bid to fly down/back to the location we're going.

This past year was a little higher than the previous 2. I had in the past averaged 65-70 hrs of block, 18 days off (this number is my baseline--one that drives the rest of my schedule), and around 130 hrs of credit. Selling back PTO drives that to 145 hrs of pay each month. This past year I had quite a few IROP-heavy months, so I was able to average the 66/145 (160 in pay)/18 I mentioned before.

Again, I'm not on an island by myself. I have a good buddy of mine who gets more trips bought than I do (his CKA are more desirable), but because his commute distance, he choose to take the time off. He parlays his trips bought into straight time off. He had to use his recurrent landings as his currency or he would have turned into a pumpkin.

The bottom line is, as you said, this is not a d1ck measuring contest, but just to see what guys can accomplish at different locations on different equipment.

Everyone will have the chance to be senior (at some level) where ever they may be--especially as an FO. I don't think it's a bad thing to put all information out there, no matter where data point sits on the diagram.

BunkerF16 01-02-2018 08:52 AM


Originally Posted by Bluedriver (Post 2493822)
How about RSA?

Besides, you forgot to tell everyone you sold back all your vacation and sick time for the year and just how much of an outlier you are. Or that you are a double Dipper with check airmen.

All of those things are VERY important context that you conveniently left out and adds lots of "color" as to why you defend JetBlue Airways in the JB section.

Some of us are VERY angry about our crap pay and years of negotiations. Don't try to minimize us because you have a VERY special situation going.

BD. Keep your JB hating to the JB board. Your act is tiring.

BeatNavy 01-02-2018 08:52 AM


Originally Posted by Bluedriver (Post 2493822)
How about RSA?

Besides, you forgot to tell everyone you sold back all your vacation and sick time for the year and just how much of an outlier you are. Or that you are a double Dipper with check airmen.

All of those things are VERY important context that you conveniently left out and adds lots of "color" as to why you defend JetBlue Airways in the JB section.

Some of us are VERY angry about our crap pay and years of negotiations. Don't try to minimize us because you have a VERY special situation going.

Not to bag on Bunk, because I like him in person, but if I was on mil leave for 13 years, missed most/all of years 1-12 pay and not being the top dude in my base/seat, came back from leave to $300k as the top dude in the right seat hand picking bought trips, plus a military pension and retired military medical (not having to pay JetBlue’s outrageous medical costs), with 18 days off a month, I probably wouldn’t be jaded and would have the same great outlook of JetBlue as he does. He never really experienced NOT being in the top percent. I commend him for his service and sacrifice, his getting lucky with his timing and his mil leave, and his ability to spend time with and provide for his family. I wish all jetblue pilots had that ability, and from our perspective here, our experiences have been vastly different than his.

BeatNavy 01-02-2018 08:57 AM


Originally Posted by BunkerF16 (Post 2493831)
Fair enough.

I bid CKA about 90% of my line, the other 10% I bid trips with soft time (SAN, SEA, AUA, CUN, etc).

I get 50-60% of my CKA trips bought. So on a month that I had an original bid of say 85 hours, with 18-19 days off, if I chose not to fly, that would end up being 3-4 days of flying with up to 25-26 days off. I then "double-dip" and pick up trips that fall into open time...usually the IROP-type pairings that have high credit and lots of DH attached to them. (No, I'm not attached to FLICA, don't have multiple phones, I don't have a BOT, and I'm not part of a cartel, so no need to reply BD.)

I sell back my PTO so that's a little over $30,000 all by itself, I can bid around the days I want off to take vacation, or even bid to fly down/back to the location we're going.

This past year was a little higher than the previous 2. I had in the past averaged 65-70 hrs of block, 18 days off (this number is my baseline--one that drives the rest of my schedule), and around 130 hrs of credit. Selling back PTO drives that to 145 hrs of pay each month. This past year I had quite a few IROP-heavy months, so I was able to average the 66/145 (160 in pay)/18 I mentioned before.

Again, I'm not on an island by myself. I have a good buddy of mine who gets more trips bought than I do (his CKA are more desirable), but because his commute distance, he choose to take the time off. He parlays his trips bought into straight time off. He had to use his recurrent landings as his currency or he would have turned into a pumpkin.

The bottom line is, as you said, this is not a d1ck measuring contest, but just to see what guys can accomplish at different locations on different equipment.

Everyone will have the chance to be senior (at some level) where ever they may be--especially as an FO. I don't think it's a bad thing to put all information out there, no matter where data point sits on the diagram.

Thanks for the additional data. Hopefully I can have a schedule and W2 as prosperous and productive as yours at some point.

Hubble15 01-02-2018 09:09 AM

1) AA
2) FO
3) 767
4) 3rd & 4th year
5) 100 days worked
6) <50 nites in hotels
7) 400 hours block
8) 920ish hours credit (reserve guarantee, plus a little OG)
9) $155K (includes per diem)
10) 401k DC, $25K; PS, $4.5K, total about $185K

Very junior. Mostly short-call reserve in base with one month holding a line and 2 months long-call. Averaged 22 days off per month and about 33 hours worked. Not a bad work to pay ratio, but I'm going over to the 320 this year so I can control my schedule better. I'd stay if there was any prospect of gaining seniority on the 76.

Qotsaautopilot 01-02-2018 09:19 AM

For the Jetblue pilots:

I understand that your PTO is a vacation/sick combo. Does this incentivize guys to fly sick? If someone is selling back all their PTO at a premium are they a super human that doesn’t get sick or is there another bank for sick time?


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