I recently had an IAH 737 captain on my jumpseat to LAX. He said he's turning 60 in AUG and bailing in NOV, as are approximately 200 other CA's at CAL. Said the way they are going to figure retirement money based on the new system Bush signed in to law would cost them approximately $50,000 a year in "free" work to the company. He said he'd rather retire than work for free, as would the other pilots planning to retire. This would certainly be good news for those on the bottom of the list. Just hope it's true. :o

I'm junior - about 90%. Before age 65 passed I was moving up about 15 to 20 seniority numbers per month. After it passed I was moving up 5 to 7 numbers a month (Jan - May).

This month (June) I moved up 28 numbers, including a 2% move up in BES. Maybe it's starting already.

I'm "hoping" this age 65 thing was just a novelty and the "fun-ness" has worn off. Why anyone would want to continue to deal with TSA, delays, commuting, and generally and industry that is down the toilet, etc., is anyones guess, but when 60 comes my way, I'll go enjoy a nice retirement. :)

Interestingly I have had two weather room conversations in the past month with captains who have used almost those exact words "...the novelty of working past age 60 has worn off. I'm putting in my papers." or "...I'm putting in my papers at the end of the summer." I had a captain on the jumpseat several pairings ago who indicated the first time this summer he misses a commute home that'll be it for him (he's a west coast commuter based in IAH). We'll see if they all follow through with it or if it's just grumbling.

The two main guys that got me hired are both going to retire this year, one in july and one in september. Paperwork is in and retirement party is being planned.

Honestly I don't know why they are staying. At the end of the year when the lump sum becomes tied to the corporate bond rate more and more each year it just devalues the amount you are going to get.

It's good to see some folks have their priorities in order.

Please ask these sane, responsible, and well-grounded gentlemen to urge their peers at other airlines to do the same!! :)

You only have to look around and see how many idiots there are at CAL with their 3rd wife and miscellaneous boats and planes laying around to see that they don't exactly demonstrate any sort of financial responsibility in their day to day routines. It amazes me how little propaganda is floating about to spell it out for these guys about how foolish it is to stick around. Many of them have had 30+ years to plan for this. They're running out of excuses and I'm running out of sympathy.

I don't think that wholesale irresponsibility is exclusive to CAL...

I've seen three retirement notices up in the past week. Good news for a change (although their could be a LOT more). The way things are going, if I had a lump sum of $750,000+ I'd be gone yesterday. Some of these guys are gambling a lot on what might just be a losing horse.......:confused: