I’m 38 but I guess I’m in the minority. I’d love to work until 67. Or at least the opportunity to. The best seniority, the best vacation time, tons of sick leave, pad my pocket a bit. I’m all for it as long as I’m all with it at that point, which with medical advancements in the next 30 years, I assume I will be. Just enjoy “retirement” on the companies dime and bring my spouse on my layovers.

 

Minority? Well maybe publicly. But I’ve always felt that the arbitrary retirement age argument was synonymous with the arbitrary minimum wage debate. It’s mostly political and people on either side are buried in and not listening. But in the end, we have essentially no say in it. Just go fly your line, live your life, retire when you want.

 

Wondering if you work for an airline with widebodies? Are you a Captain yet? If so, delaying your Captain upgrade and/or movement to each larger airplane by two years will mean you’ll to need work two additional years just to break even. Said another way, you’ll work 2 extra years for no pay.

 

you can. at netjets or walmart. it’s just not going to be at united.

 

I think some guys like you that got hired relatively young share that view, so you aren’t necessarily alone in that regard. A storied career tends to keep the glasses rosy.

 

Whats your current fleet/seat? Because that’s where you’ll spend the two extra years if/when this goes into effect. It’s not two more years at the top, like the ones advocating this will get.

 

yes but I was hired into the wide body and have no desire to go back. 737 ride or die baby.

 

your math is terrible. You get extra years to work. So if its at narrowbody capt vs widebody you get an extra 2 years at 400k instead of 500k. You are still making an additional 800k .

 

Your math is incomplete. During those 2 years of stagnation a pilot could easily lose 100-200k by delaying upgrade to larger equipment or the left seat. Now add in the lost retirement contributions, over the remainder of their career, and the value that money would have grown over that time. Let’s also not forget the additional time it will take to hold the schedules/vacations you want and/or manipulate your schedule to make more money. Now we’re talking maybe an additional 3-400k, AT MOST. No thanks, I’d rather have more income now, when I need it (kids, college, retirement, etc), then have to push myself another 2 years before I can finally enjoy the fruits of my career. By that point time will be more valuable to me than an arguably very small monetary gain. The only folks who will gain anything really meaningful from a retirement age increase are those at the top the day it goes into effect. The “everyone makes more money so it’s a good thing” argument is incomplete at best, bordering on disingenuous.

 

Amazing how many really grasp this concept.....

The same line of reasoning was used when 65 went through. All that really did was;

1) Keep people at the regionals that much longer
2) Add on the recession, then basically 2 more years