chillynorth

Hi all,

I’m currently working for a major airline in Canada and am considering moving to a major in the USA because the wife wants to move closer to her family. We have a few kids so apart from compensation, I’m looking into what sort of security I can offer my family at a new job if I were to get an offer from one of the American majors.

Can anyone tell me what sort of disability or loss of licence plans are included at the majors? Specifically:

1. What is the payout per month or year?
2. Are you covered from day 1 as a new hire or is there a waiting period (ie. getting off probation)
3. What time does it go until? 65? Retirement? 20 years?...

Thanks!

Csy Mon

1) AA, Max $8k per month
2) AA, no, far from it.
3) Retirement age, or 65 as per today.

Never heard anybody picking and choosing airlines based on LTD plan,
do you feel a bit disabled already?

BKbigfish

I believe DAL has the best disability hands down and the rest of us are fighting for second place. Here at Spirit...

1) Max benefit $15k/month (based on 60% of income). $5k of that is company paid, $10k is employee paid at very reasonable group plan rates. The benefit to paying for the coverage is that the $10k is tax free. Health benefits at company rates for 5 years after disability.

2) I believe there is a one year waiting period for eligibility.

3) Own occupation coverage until retirement (pays out until age 65).

Where DAL pulls away here is that they do not offset disability payment with future income and they also continue to contribute to your retirement until age 65. Correct me if I’m wrong.

Hossharris

DAL:
Long Term Disability (LTD): Company pays 50% of your highest 36 months average from day 1 until 65 once you’ve used all your sick leave. You still 16% DC to 401k.

Delta Pilots Mutual Aid (DPMA): you pay in (cheap). Pays the other 50% for up to a year.

There is some sort of offset if you have outside income.... but it’s only if you make more than the LTD income ... or something. But I’m not smart on that.

AAfng

AA is covered day one.

It is 60% of your average pay in previous 12 months but it is TAXABLE. There is a union plan that supplements your LTD, pays based on your years at the company. Year one pays 2000 per month non taxable but it has a 6 month elimination period.

m3113n1a1

I believe it's actually 32% DC to make it equivalent to 16% if you were still earning your full salary.

crewdawg

The book says it's based on 25% of our earnings BUT it's tax free, so it's attempting to bring you (along with LTD) up to ~90% of highest 36 months.

You get a total of 24 months worth of DMPA benefit in a career, but only 12 months max per event.

rbigred300

You mention the past 36 months. My understanding is at Delta it is the highest 12 consecutive months within the past 3 years. However, a friend of mine went out recently and he said it was calculated based on the highest 3 consecutive months within the past year. Could he some kind of new hire difference. Also supposedly if you took mil leave during any month they assume min reserve pay for that month.

Tuck

Fedex - after you use up your sick and disability (saved sick - max of 686 credit hours), 100% company paid LTD is 60% of highest 12 consecutive months from last 36 months (capped at 401a17 limits) for two years then 50% until age 65. Big thing is you still accrue years of service for your pension.

So, for example, go LTD age 55 with 15 years on property you'll earn the other 10 years of service towards the max 25 years (2%/year max of 50%) on your defined benefit.

Delta doesn't let you roll over sick leave. So an average Fedex pilot at age 55 likely has a full DSA bank so say he goes on disability for the rest of his career and say he hasn't used his 72CH of sick leave for year
- starts out with 10 months of full pay (72 sick plus 686 DSA)
- then goes to 60% - likely at that age he easily maxed out so $162,000 for two years
- then 50% until age 65

one bad thing is benefits are offset by social security (and any state disability you might have once on LTD)

Tuck

In order for any benefit to be tax free it has to be paid for by pilot. So the extra disability benefits offered from your MEC or ALPA or the state disability benefits all require pilot payments...and pay out tax free.