Seriously. Flew with a guy whose wife had the flu for the last four days. He was cool to come to work though because even though he took care of her, he slept on the couch. #eyeroll
Agreed, although I am new here and don't have massive sick banks or a military pension, so who knows that may change over time.
Same, but I think it is a generational and military thing. I am not throwing shade at all, everyone does what makes themselves happy, but no way will there ever be a time I average 140 a month. Hell, I don't think I average 90 a month lol. I just value my sanity and time home more than the paycheck.

Not ideal but we’re starting a home build and interest rates suck….cash is king. I fly around 60-70 hrs a month and rest is soft pay…not as bad as it sounds.

Avg 90/mo and prob block in the 60-70’s. Less with sick/vacation in those months.

Work your schedule with Elitt/TTGA and bid into storms for chaos pay, grab premium when you can and add 50% to your paycheck. Not for everyone but it’s not like I’m at work 6 days a week. Most I’ve blocked in the 12 mo lookback is 80 hrs. Some of the other guys here who know how to work the CBA can chime in on how much work they put into schedule manipulation to get the credit up. Way easy if you live in base. I sleep in my own bed 18-20 nights a month.

I think this decision is just highly dependent on your situation. I am in the middle of my career here and am very healthy and financially secure enough to survive indefinitely on the 50 percent nontaxed. The retirement contribution coming as taxed money does concern me, but there are ways I can direct that into pre-tax investments that may even make it a benefit in the long run.
No offsets means I can also find another job (I was not an aviation major) and supplement my income and retirement by working.
My kids mostly adults and I really do live a very simple existence with a lot of free cash flow. Some don't due to life circumstances and I totally get that. That's why these products exist. I am glad SWAPA got them and hope that enough take advantage to make it sustainable.

I’m dumping it. I don’t have any sick time. We live on 5th yr FO pay, no debt except the house, avg about 90TFP per month. The 50% will be more than what we need. Plus I have enough cash to cover anything else. I’ve been out on medical before. There are far more important things than SWA and chasing the dollar.

I'm probably going to leave the auto-election for STD and LTD-A alone and go with that until my sick bank is built back up. I had to burn my sick to zero recently along with backing off on work so at least in the short term having both STD and LTD will sweeten the pot enough to make up for that. I'm even considering LTD-B for a year because I didn't fly nearly as much over the last 15 months as I "usually" do so right now my LOL 50% would be a lot thinner than typical. Once I get back into a more normal routine (100-110 TFP average for me) then it'll make more sense to back off on LTD to A or drop it entirely, and then when my sick balance is reasonable (300ish is my starting goal) I'll likely drop STD too.

An FO who is close to upgrade might also consider STD/LTD until establishing a year's pay history at CA rates.

I'm leaning towards LTD-B although I haven't decided just yet. With LTD-B and any sort of sick leave bank saved, you'll be just about made whole if you go out on long-term medical. What's wrong with this picture? Is it worth 1.65 TFP per 100TFP earned to have that peace of mind?

Let me put some cheapskate pilot math out there. How many LCO's in a year would this be? Or how about overflys? DL's? Is that worth potentially being made whole should the unthinkable happen? A single big reroute could potentially pay for the whole year of having this coverage. To me, that just might be worth it.

You really only need to get to 65% of MBE to be made whole if you do nontaxable. That’s also assuming you spend every dollar of that 65% on bills.

Max OOP on the RP is $2500/yr. You won’t go broke from medical bills on LOL depending on what medical plan you’re on. Nontaxable pays NEC as cash vs 401k so you can invest it how you see fit or use it for bills. If the medical problem is bad enough, you’ve got SSID with no offsets. If you have a sick bank, you can cash out some when you need it, and you have vacation pay as well (get NEC on that too).

Sure max of $650/mo doesn’t seem like much when you put it in tfp, but people need to do the math and figure out what they realistically need to be comfortable if their medical is yanked.

You’re looking at $200k a year tax free if you are a 12 yr CA crediting 100/mo (add $65k for NEC and doesn’t count sick time top-off or VA pay…could get you close to $300k)

Personally, I can live pretty damn comfy on nearly $300k a year. Is the $8k/yr in premiums worth another $2500-4500/mo? If your disability isn’t bad (still have the ability to work…just not as a pilot), you can find a side hustle and there’s no offsets.

We don’t pay COBRA anymore, still have travel benefits if you need to fly for treatments. I don’t see where I’d need LTD…but everyone’s finances, etc are different.

I dunno man, not sure if this is worthy of an eyeroll (or if it is ... I'm just as deserving of one).

I don't think I have ever called out from work because someone else in my household was sick.

But it can buy me a boat.
It can buy me a truck to pull it. It can buy me a Yeti 110 iced down with some Silver Bullets.
Yeah, and I know what they say, money can't buy everything...
Maybe so. But it can buy me a boat... ;)