PRS Guitars

I think you mean less than 5% "do" IMAX vs "is able to". Every line holder is able to IMAX. I couldn't last year since I was on reserve but can now, and plan to.

PRS Guitars

Stop with posting contracts to show the difference...thats a weak debating point. Why not just point out a few things that will earn a pilot more at DAL? I'll start, they have way better profit sharing and tend to earn more profits.

That said, there is way more to a career than out earning your peers. If that is the most important thing for you, than choose DAL for sure. There are many intangibles to consider, and on balance I'm happy at American, I'm sure I'd be happy at DAL. Commute wise, both are good with reserving the JS, but AA is better in that we just need one flight to get to work, no backup. Gonna move to domiciles, I'm in the minority here, but think they both offer great choices, so that's a push unless you are really tied to a specific (many at AA want to live in Texas, that's a draw for some people). Seniority progression, very age dependent and also hard to compare when we don't have lower tier Widebodies like they do. I guess the XLR will fill that roll, but you can't just bid for that, so I don't count it.

Either way, great problem to have, congrats to your friend!

PRS Guitars

This is it, the guys that complain the loudest, typically also scoff at flying PM, picking up easy OOB trips, IMAX etc. making money at AA is looked down on, so it's basically "fight club"...one doesn't talk about it.

Fly76

yup, 1.5 years here at AA and already IMAXed. Made 150K on first year pay.

Ski Bird

Currently on the outside looking in and some of the company-specific lingo is tripping me up a bit.

IMAX explanation please?

From the context, it looks like some sort of premium award or ability to get bought off of trips or something.

JulesWinfield

It’s complicated and unique to AA, but essentially, you credit a lot in early months to get later months off with pay, then you pick up premium.

dsevo

Yep. 2 years and ~$250k for me. Point being, there’s lots of earning flavors at AA, you just have to pick one and be good at it. I keep pretty close tabs on credit vs TAFB with my similar start-date peers at other legacies, and I have seen zero evidence that I’m behind.

tallpilot

Profit sharing language is the same as Delta now. Will profits be the same as Delta? Maybe not but it isn't the no-brainer advantage to Delta that it once was.

airbusflieger

AA pilots earn Pay, and Credit. Hourly pay is money, hourly credit, is credit towards an Indivdual MAXimum amount of credit a pilot can acrue over a rolling 12 month period.

A pilot can have something paid for but not credited for, and vise versa. I won't go into the details.

There is an agreed to laundry list of what qualifies for credit only vs pay and credit. Some things give a pilot pay, but no credit.

The strategy is to hit 1000 hours of credit prior to 12 months. If a pilot hits 1000 hrs of credit in month 11, then month 12 is not elible to fly a regular line of flying or reserve. The pilot is IMAX'd and will have the 12th month off with line average pay-around 82 hours. The only flying a pilot can do while IMAX'd is fly premium.

IMAX strategies are crafted to hit 1000 hours of credit in as few months as possible. I've seen pilots hit IMAX in month 9, with three months off with pay using IMAX and conflict bidding. Caveat: Hitting IMAX in 9 months involves sick use, a huge no-no at AA and is a risk. Some airlines see sick use as nothing more than using PTO, but AA see's it as stealing and has a long history of pilot discipline for sick use..but that is a whole other thread topic.

Any lineholder can do this. Some IMAX for the time off, some use the IMAX month(s) to fly premium and boost the annual W2.

It should be clear now why AA negotiated to limit the list of things that generate "credit".

In C23, AA managed to whittle down items that qualify for credit, the reason being explained above. So, while United and Delta have many ways to boost the W2 with work rules, the APA actually gave a concession in their work rule to limit a pilots ability to increase time off/W2.

Note: A successful IMAX strategy can be crafted not using any sick, but that will require averaging 93 or more hours every month.

Andrew_VT

It isn't just that Delta will have higher profits.

It's that the profit sharing pool here at AA is split amongst a higher mainline employee head count (we're not exactly well run) PLUS the three wholly owned regionals (all employees not just pilots).