I don’t “work the system” hard at all. I said I work smarter, not harder. As in, work less for the same money, maybe a little more. Those who do “work the system” are easily exceeding me by $80-100k or more.

So yes, It’s probable that the average DL NB CA will make close to $400k this year, not including 401k. We had “retro” this year, yes, but minimal PS. Next year will see stout PS, plus a 7% raise. The average WB CA will make $500k this year. That’s not meant as a flex, just facts. UA pilots will be ballpark similar, especially going forward. The real difference being PS.

And BTW, I didn’t start the talk about caps and limits. I was merely responding to other people who were, with like comparisons.

I’ll bow out now, not trying to stir anything up.

 

Fangs, I appreciate the great explanation and I know most of us do, don’t take anything here as personal, it’s certainly not. I actually have no idea what the average NBCA at UAL is pulling down, with the new TA it could be closer to your DAL estimate. Thanks for the info, no need to bow out.

 

You said you're over $300K in 8 months. NB CA pay in your new contract is ~$336/hr. So approximately 900 credit hours in 8 months.

 

He may have bowed out. In case you missed it....



If UAL would have matched Delta's for contract re reserves, there might not have been a need for "forced capt upgrades". Who knows, after ratification there might not either. We'll see how that pans out over the ensuing couple of vacancy bids after/if it gets MEMRAT. It's not like on a percentage basis that many capt slots go unfilled.

 

Since you (sort of) asked/challenged... From Jan-Aug, I averaged 93 hours of pay per month, working about 10.5 days a month, bidding Reserve, and including about 2 days of "Green Slip" premium pay per month (not hard to do). That totals about $250k. On top of that is a touch over $10k in PS and $60k in "Retro". The bare minimum I'll make in the remaining 4 months is $25k/mo. Total is about $420k for the year, maybe a little more.

93 hours is not hustling at DL. At all. Pilots who hustle, or "work the system" are making 120 hours of pay or more. Sometimes, a lot more. And they are also probably working 15-16+ days a month to do it.

With the 7% pay raise next year (again, thanks UAPLA for 2% of that. Seriously), I need only get ~86.5 hours of pay/month to get the same paycheck. I expect profit sharing in 2024 (paid on 2023's wages) to easily exceed $40k.

I'm glad if y'all are happy with your system and/or LTD plan. Just trying to ensure it's apples/apples. And again, please don't view any of this as a flex. I'm not special.

 

93 hrs divided by 10.5 days. That's averaging 10 hrs/day of pay. Is that normal at Delta on narrowbodies? Even with premium pay, that sounds high. Good on ya.

I think you're reading too much about my comment of 'working the system'. I've worked the system before and pulled down some decent paychecks. A lot of people do it and a lot of people go for working the minimum. The nice thing about this job is we have flexibility to do so.

 

While I think my pay is ballpark of average, my days worked is definitely not. I only mentioned that in case anyone thought I was working a ton to get the pay up. I'd say I am decidedly on the low end of days worked. Average is probably in the 13-14 range?

Fair enough about the second part.

It's been a long slog for everyone to get a new contract. Too long. Good to see UA folks still kicking the tires on the TA, instead of a fatigue-vote on pay rates alone. Hopefully SWA can finally kick their mgmt over the line soon. That place could get ugly.

 

I’m someone else, but I’ve had numerous trips buys where entire 5 day trip bought (28-30 hours), then did a 2 day double time trips for another 21 hours (usually less than 3 hours total flying, 2 short legs) for a total of 49-51 hours. I count those hours as 2 days work even though I was technically getting paid for 9 days. Skews the average per day way up. Just an example. Lots of other things raise the credit way up. Reroutes, paid for illegally assigned trips, etc.

The airline pays a ton when short-staffed and in IROPS which it has been since 2020.

 

Andy, I went round and round with Sunvox regarding Delta's profit sharing and receiving a DC on top . It took a couple of months for him to see the light about Delta's PS. I am glad you got a Delta match on that

I hope that eventually you'll understand that Delta's work rules, reserve, "rolling thunder", PB days, sick leave, vacation and a whole host of other work rules allow the Delta pilots to credit huge months of pay. Yes, sometimes it is by working 16 or 17 day, sometimes way less, as Fangs and Hockeypilot said.

Other than PPU, is there any way for United pilots to credit 120 hrs/month?

BTW...we all understand that "not everyone" can do it, but guess what? A lot of pilots don't want to do it therefore, it is fairly common up and down the seniority list depending on the niche that one is in. But there are a lot of different avenues to max out pay. Additionally, that increased "productivity" also reduces the number of pilots required. It doesn't do any good for you to understand the in's and out's, you'll just have to trust Fangs that it is very commonplace.

 

Soft time (deadheading, trips that pay more than block hours), having your trip bought off. If you work on your day off, you can either have the day restored or get 5 hrs of pay. There are probably other ways; those are the two that come to mind at the moment.