I lived in NYC for a while so I realize how expensive it is but I'd never pay that much to live in Jersey. I'm kidding. I Didn't figure living in Jersey was that expensive.

Chimpy didn't mention the 6.37% state income tax rate either. If you make $150,000, Uncle Chris takes $10,000 of it.

The only base we have where $80k can support a family of 4 in a good school district (or a bad school district and send them to private school) is Dallas.

Our FOs also don't make $80k unless they bypass upgrade.

A 3rd year fo makes $67k on guarantee
A 2nd year fo makes $62k

You need to be a 6 yr fo to break $80k

A United 6 yr Airbus fo is making $132k and getting over $21k just from the company into his 401k as well as an unknown profit sharing check.

A United 3rd yr fo makes $123k and $19k into his 401k

So a 3rd year United fo gets a larger dollar amount put into his 401k than ANY spirit pilot under the age of 50 no matter how much they made.

I agree our pay is a joke but where in Gods name are you coming up with these numbers? I made 88k the year prior to upgrade (3rd year pay) flying my lines plus two JA for the year.

3rd year is 77.73 X 72hrs X 12 months = $67,158.72. The United numbers were figured on the same guarantee. Sure we have lines over 72hrs and so do they but that's not guaranteed money by any stretch and can't be built into a family budget. JA, and any open time for that matter is completely at the whim of management and requires working on ones day off.

You have to compare straight guarantee simply because it's the only hard number you can count on at any airline. Too many variables otherwise to make a fair comparison.

You also can't vote on a contract based on working X amount over guarantee or getting X JAs. Even if one can hold a big transition conflict every month it doesn't mean they will make over guarantee even if they want to. What if there is no open time to pick up over that conflict? That's at the whim of management.

I, too, have a hard time understanding why the same labor/management issues that happen at every other airline are somehow some big shock and surprise here. To quote the great philosopher Hyman Roth, "This is the business we chose!"

Or Detroit.... Or Chicago if you live in Wisconsin.

Here is my calculation of reserve time for each base, shortest to longest:
(1) DTW - 11 months (8 from now)
(2) FLL - 12 months (9 from now)
(3) ORD - 13 months (10 from now)
(4) LAS - 14 months (11 from now)
(5) DFW - 17 months (14 from now)
(6) ACY - 21 months (18 from now)
* My calculation disregards senior FOs that seem to not be bidding for one reason or another.
** Calculation does not take into account past, current, or future aircraft deliveries or delays.

That's reserve time. I'll have to find my calculations on when a new hire can hold a base, my whole class was placed in ACY on day 1 and we were all able to hold FLL by the end of IOE. A few of us are expecting to hold DTW soon. Thats the Jan 4 class.

I did the math based on April bid sheets..
Here is my calculation of reserve time for each base, shortest to longest:
(1) DTW - 11 months (8 from now)
(2) FLL - 12 months (9 from now)
(3) ORD - 13 months (10 from now)
(4) LAS - 14 months (11 from now)
(5) DFW - 17 months (14 from now)
(6) ACY - 21 months (18 from now)
* My calculation disregards senior FOs that seem to not be bidding for one reason or another.
** Calculation does not take into account past, current, or future aircraft deliveries or delays.