123456

IMHO, the people who don't want age 67 are really shortsighted.. You have no idea what life will throw your way you in the upcoming years ( or maybe it already has) … Sick child? Wife gets cancer? Car accident?… or any other type of savings draining financial hardship, Etc. Having the OPTION to work longer IF YOU HAVE to is priceless. I don't have the data offhand, but I'm sure quite a bit stayed past 60 but how many of those made it to 65? Most of people I talk to all want to tap out about 62 or 63 so if it does go to 67 how many more people that small amount will stay that long? I think it's a small negligible amount. The seniority progression argument with a small percentage of people who will stay that long is also negligible. I certainly don't plan on staying that late, but I will if I HAVE to because of some unforeseen event.

hockeypilot44

I think it’s the exact opposite. They aren’t short-sighted. With our seniority based system, seniority is money and freezing our list for 2 years hurts. Very few pilots retire before the mandatory age. That will not change.

JamesBond

I should have kept count of how many on this thread are saying they are quitting well before 65.

Gone Flying

while I agree many will probably stay til 67, the big difference (at least right now) is 65 is when we become eligible for Medicare. Barring another option in healthcare that is a pretty significant reason to stay til 65.

my guess would be if ICAO adopts 67, 75-80% of pilots stay til 67. If they don’t then we probably see more bail at 65 as some WB pilots might just call it quits rather than spend another month on Virginia ave to take a pay cut and fly domestic only.

RAH RAH REE

Every CA i fly with, and a lot of FOs are 63 to 64 in my category. I've not met one guy who is going out before 65. People might say that but very few ever do.

FangsF15

For anyone who leaves before 67 themselves, it’s a net loss no matter how you cut it, because they will never get that 2 years of seniority progression back.

The only group universally benefiting universally are those who lose their medical are permanently NBC SIC.

According to widgetsebiority.com, since the VEOP, about 70% leave at 65, give or take. Since 2015, the average is 57% leaving at 65. Regression is at 9/8/6% for 64/63/62.

It’s almost impossible to predict percentages for 66&67. But if you extrapolate back up from the 64/63/62 regression, 10-15% more will leave each of 65 & 66, leaving about 50% or less going to 67. Who knows, though. A lot of spouses may be looking forward to being done at 65, and you know what they say about happy wife…

PilotBases

Im sure just as many spouses are looking forward to two more years of Captain Happy beign gone half the month.

180ToAJ

So 20-25 years from now you can bring it back up? That’ll show ‘em.
Somehow this would validate your opinion and you would finally be made whole in the reparations of what was owed to you. On that day, vindication would be spelled J-A-M-E-S.
I would say nobody has that kind of fortitude, but you and NB surprise me every day.

Gone Flying

I think there might be some survivorship bias in asking 63 and 64 years olds if they plan to retire early.

like I said, unless you have other arrangements for healthcare, it makes sense to go to 65 for health insurance alone.

I think some pilots have an age in mind when it comes to retirement. I think if 67 happens a lot of pilots that don’t have a specific age in mind will just continue because they can and no one told them to stop.

Fastpilot

I bet 90% of pilots stay until 67. I mean, why not. 2 more years of making 500K getting 18 days off per month is easy. Lots of people say they want to punch out early but I doubt most of them will.