Originally Posted by LeineLodge
(Post 954363)
KODI,
I'll do my best to answer what I can. The info on the APC pages is usually pretty accurate, but often doesn't paint the complete picture.
Don't know much about SWA. At Delta:
- Paid sick leave is done in hours based on Years of Service. First year is (I believe) 75 hours/year, and goes up from there to 240 hours/year at 12 years of service. The caveat is you are only paid at 100% for the first 300 hours in a rolling 3 year period. For example, I use all 240 hours this year at 100% and all 240 hours next year. Only the first 60 hours next year are paid at 100%, then the remaining 180 hours are paid at 70 or 75% (can't remember because I've never come close to it.) You still get the hours paid out, but at a reduced rate. Generally, if you don't use more than 100 hours/year (less is better in case of a future unknown) then you will be paid at 100% for your sick time.
Sick time is supplemented with short term and long term disability depending on how long you are out for. Further, long term disability is supplemented by pilot funded DPMA (Delta Pilots Mutual Aid). The purpose of this is to fill the gap between long term disability (50% of your salary) and what you would have made if you weren't out of work. If you are a member of DPMA (somewhere north of 98% of Delta pilots are) you are entitled to up to 2 years of benefits, but may only use a maximum of 1 year per event. To get the 2nd year, you have to return to work for at least 1 day, and/or have a separate event.
-401k. By the time you get out of the military Delta pilots will be getting 14% of their salary into their Defined Contribution (DC) plan. The company puts this in whether you contribute anything to your 401k or not. It is a contribution, not a match. Your contributions are limited by IRS regulations - $16,500 if under 50 and I think you can do an extra $5000 if you're over 50. Not an expert on this stuff, as I'm not an old guy (yet) so someone else will chime in with better info. Total contributions for the year (your contribution + the company contribution) are capped at $49,000/year. Not too many guys are hitting that mark in a normal year. This is one thing that a lot of guys want to see increased.
-No stock options. There have been occasional equity distributions to the pilot group as a result of bankruptcy, merger, pension termination, etc, but we don't regularly have stock options. We do get profit sharing that is calculated based on if/how much the company makes. We just received profit sharing checks a few weeks ago for 2010 that were approximately equal to 6.5% of the pilot's 2010 W2.
-Relocation allowance - This only comes into play if you are involuntarily displaced out of your position. For example, you are a Detroit 767ER First Officer and things start moving backwards. The company will publish a surplus bid and suddenly you are not senior enough to hold your current position. You can then preference where you would like to go instead, and if that is to a different base (say Salt Lake City A-320 First Officer) the company will pay to relocate you. There are some restrictions, but this is basically the only way the company will pay for your move.
-Education benefits - You and your family will be able to apply for various Delta scholarships, but there is no education allowance to my knowledge. Someone with more info on this could help out here.
-Pass Travel - Pretty decent pass travel benefits on Delta and Delta Connection carriers. All travel is standby and you pay $50/year to activate your travel account. Boarding for available seats is in seniority order, with a few exceptions. We are able to purchase tickets on Delta at a reduced rate if you want to have a confirmed seat. Eligible travelers are: you, spouse, parents, and dependents.
You get 8 buddy passes/year to give out if you wish, but they're rarely worth it. The buddy still has to pay a little bit for them, and they have the worst boarding priority (ie behind all the other eligible travelers.) I generally shy away from handing these out, as you will inevitably end up playing travel agent when your friend gets stranded.
Pilots can list the jumpseat and for the most part have a confirmed seat on mainline Delta aircraft, subject to booking timeframe restrictions. This is especially helpful if you will be commuting.
-Upgrade time - Hopefully sooner than later :D Your guess is as good as mine. We have over 12,000 pilots and roughly half are captains. With relatively minimal retirements over the next 5 years, there will not be much movement. After around 2017 and beyond, we hit a huge wave of mandatory age 65 retirements that continues for over a decade. A large majority of the list will leave during that timeframe. If you are young enough (under 40, which is sounds like you're probably not) then you will have a good last 15 to 20 years here. Otherwise you will probably top out at widebody copilot or junior narrowbody captain.
A lot of things can/will change this. How many guys actually make it to 65? Can we hold the line or recapture RJ flying? International codeshare/Joint Venture agreements and their resultant allocation of flying? New aircraft orders? Economy? Oil? ????????
The short answer is you need to be happy and comfortable as a First Officer, because you're probably going to be one for a LONG time. Don't take this job because you like the Captain payrates. Talk to your buddies about what their W2 looks like and how many nights away from home they spend a month. Those are the biggest factors that reflect how good the rest of our contract items are structured.
- Life insurance - Delta provides approximately $1.5 million in life insurance for each pilot. You can select less if you don't need all of it, as you will pay imputed taxes on the portion of this that is over the IRS limit and thus considered income. Again, I don't know the exact limit, but it's not terribly expensive.
Loss of License - You can buy this through ALPA, and is independent of Delta. I have looked at it several times over the years and keep coming to the conclusion that it's not worth it. To each, his own.
- Medical Plan - There are plenty of options to pick a medical plan that works for your family. Participation is NOT mandatory. I'm on my wife's plan, as her employer offers a better one. I assume you're asking because you will have retiree medical from the military. There are plenty of mil guys on here that can give you much better gouge on that than I can.
I'm all typed out. I'm sure others will pipe in with some things I left out. Both companies are great choices, but ultimately one will probably be a better fit for you. None of this matters until you have a job offer with each anyways, so start networking with your buddies NOW that way you can have something lined up before you get out. Again, the mil guys can tell you better how to approach the timeline, but you probably want to have an application in with Delta ASAP, in case they open the hiring window. If you get behind the hiring curve, there will be that many more resumes flowing in that you will be competing with.
Thanks for your service, and hopefully we'll see you in a year! :)
|
