WOW!!!!!


Some guys have an extremely strange thought process. What an extremely weak attempt to rationalize sub-par health plans.

YOU are talking to an Airline Pilot. Not a Hostess employee! He is entitled to PEER COMPETITIVE health plans befitting Major Airline Pilots!!!!!!!

Maybe Santa could bring you your first book on Labor Economics.


JJ

Health & Well-Being Benefits

• Consumer-directed health plans, including Health Reimbursement Accounts (HRA) plans and a high-deductible plan with a Health Savings Account (HSA). Highlights include:
  • 100 percent coverage for eligible network preventive care
  • $4 co-pay on thousands of eligible generic drugs
  • Maternity Program – personal support network before, during and after pregnancy
• HMO plans (available on a location-by-location basis)
• Dental insurance
• Free confidential counseling and health information service
• Quit Tobacco program
• Company-paid life insurance for associates; optional and dependent life insurance available
• Accidental death & dismemberment insurance (AD&D)
• Critical illness insurance
• Accident insurance
• Short- and long-term disability insurance
• Associate Eyewear Program

Better? Not really. The same? Well, you might be on to something there....

wait until you have to use your health benefits. Hopefully its not a serious condition because you will not be able to afford it on first year pay. Once the blue juice wears off you will be back here singing a different tune.

Nah, we're on the same page. I just deal a little more in facts. Like I said. Wal-Mart employees (at least the full time ones) don't have better health benefits. The sad part is, OUR benefits are on par with that rather than those of a comparable mainline airline. That needs to change.

I think part of it stems from the corporate philosophy of we're all crewmembers and everyone is equal. Kinda like the prior philosophy that all customers are equal. They finally changed their tune and offer multiple tiers of value for customers. The same is going to have to happen for the pilots vs other crewmembers. Fact is, a ramper probably IS on par with another ramper at a major. Pilots? Not so much. In order to "attract and retain," that'll have to change.

It won't have to change, why would it? Change mean an increase in costs, so just leave it the way it is.

But you're not a comparable mainline carrier. Your a LCC that happens to be operating big aircraft; using a business model that was originally designed to have the company sold off after 10 years. They pay you well because they had no other costs. That will slowly be changing. Get used to it.

So what is your definition of a LCC? Southwest? Virgin Atlantic? Spirit? If that's the case, how are we flying "big aircraft" in comparison? For that fact, you could pretty much toss Alaska into the bunch.

Low Cost Carrier is a very, very poor label for anything in this industry. There's nothing low about the cost, either operating or tickets. In fact, Southwest, the darlings of the supposed LCC scenario, are not even the cheapest when it comes to tickets a lot of the time. With the AirTran merger and headaches going along with that, their operating costs are anything BUT low as well. Spirit? Sure, they're low cost ticket wise, IF you buy it on a fare sale, starve, don't bring any baggage and want to feel like you're freight for the duration of flight....

I thought jb was a major when I got hired. In retrospect its little more than a glorified regional with low pay, poor work rules and substandard benefits. They push the culture to make people feel like they are part of something bigger and better, so therefore will work for less. Sorry but the coolness factor loses credibility every time you look at your paycheck and 401k account. You can call it low cost, regional, whatever semantics you wish but its nothing more than what I just said.

Well said. I took a huge paycut to come here, my second year pay is still less then 50% of my last job. I am beginning to feel that it may not have been worth it. We need a CBA. The good news is that tons of 2-5 year FOs at JB will be jumping ship as soon as UAL, DAL and (if AA gets a similar contract) AA. Not to mention the furloughed at JB from the above mentioned carriers returning to their mainline employers. Between or growth and attrition there should be plenty of movement for the junior half of half of the seniority list. Without a CBA I am sure we will not be competitive as a destination carrier hence the quality of our new hires will deminish.

I think you are right, there will be a big exodus once the major and legacy carriers start hiring again. Coming from a military background this place was a bad move when I look back. I should have never believed all the hype I had heard, would have saved a lot of time to just go do something else.