maddogmax

I think your numbers on the RMA are way off. I got 42k when I took the last offer at 62yrs/11mos.

tsquare

Please explain the highlighted sentence. They didn't pay anybody.

I agree with the rest.. especially for the 777 guys since the company will then be in no hurry to replace them.

sailingfun

The 6 pilots mentioned would have all stayed until 0 to 2 months prior to their age 65 normal retirement. In exchange for 0 to two months pay they passed on getting somewhere around 30 weeks of pay and the RMA which was less then I first mentioned but the other poster got 42,000. The max RMA was 120k but that was lots of years of service. To me that's paying the company to work.

sailingfun

The RMA was based on years of service not age. The max was 120k but I don't know how it broke down by years.

tsquare

That's government style accounting. They didn't get as much for their service, true, but hardly qualifies as paying the company. Kind of like the rhetoric I keep hearing about the 747 guys losing money by hanging around until 65. If that were true, why are they still here?

Roadkill

This is what KILLS us at the bottom, and makes all this hiring and retiring meaningless to the guys already here and in the bottom third, as far as advancement goes: all the upward movement is stopped via "no backfilling".
From the AE award info:
744 – With the news of the four 744 retirements in 2014 we will not backfill up to 10 Captains and 10 First Officers on this AE
777 – ...we will draw down the DTW-777 categories as pilots bid off and we may post DTW-777 displacements in 2015....We will not backfill up to 5 DTW Captain and DTW F/O positions.
330 – ...We will not backfill up to 15 DTW-330 F/Os on this AE.
765 – ...We will not backfill up to a total of 8 Captains and 8 F/Os on this bid.
7ER – ...At this time, we are not adding Captains and may not backfill DTW and MSP as Captains bid off. ...We will not backfill up to 10 DTW F/Os.
73N – ...We will not backfill up to 15 CVG Captain and 15 CVG First Officer pilots.
320 – ...We may not backfill DTW and MSP Captains and DTW and MSP First Officers.
M88 –...We will not backfill up to 10 CVG Captains and 10 CVG Frist Officers.

So there you have it in a nutshell, all the "openings" for Capts will be MORE THAN DESTROYED for junior advancement, by "not backfilling". Just one more in a long line of AEs that look good on the surface, and guys will come on here and post "look at all the CAPT positions Delta added!", but the details show more CAPT positions deleted via "not backfilling".

Meh, it is what it is, just getting this out there before some cheerleader gets on here telling us how great this is and how many CAPT positions we're getting...

sailingfun

Not sure I get the 777 part since the company plans a increase in 777 block hours. That is why they have been adding Captains in ATL.

tsquare

I was referring to the early retirement program. They WOULD be foolish to pass it by since they will not go early because the company will be in no hurry to replace them.

sailingfun

Because it's not true. They are making huge amounts of money by staying.

sailingfun

We have had AE's posted for a NET gain of over 900 CA's positions since contract 2012 was signed. 775 have been trained and converted.