SocialD

Ya the company made a strong play to finally rid itself of the pension. From talking with a former squadron mate at FDX for a while, it appears they've had to expend a decent amount of capital just to maintain the current pension. Smart of them to plus it up a bit for those who will get to keep it, while dumping it for any new hires. Get buy in by those who will do anything to keep their pension and who cares about those not hired... If they lose the pension, I think they lose a big competitive advantage as the pension is one of the big things they have over pax carriers, by a long shot. If they have the same retirement as the pax carriers, why choose FDX over UAL or DAL? Big reasons I can think of is that you live in/near a FDX hub or you live somewhere where their rotation construction (read DH on front/back or both ends) is advantageous over the airlines. Otherwise, it's the same gig, except you'll likely fly more nights in your career (yes I know they do day flying...an WB pax carriers fly nights). The whole "dealing with pax" things is wildly overblown by those who are at the cargo carriers as another justification for their choice. I've been at DAL for 10 years, 2 as a Captain and I have yet to "deal with a pax" that was anything more than having the FO call a red coat, or have a medical divert that made me quite a bit of extra cash. We all have our warts and noone is immune to have people not show up to indoc. I'd venture to guess that over the last few years, more pax carriers had no shows than the cargo guys. Hell, I have a squadron mate that left FDX during training...for UPS lol. Back to current day, I'd say it's a bit pre-mature to just up and bail, especially if you're still going to have the pension. There could be something to the business model change to consider, I haven't read into that. We all take our turns in the barrel, thought I'm not sure that's the right term for what FDX is experiencing right meow. The pax carriers are just lucky that uncle sugar bailed us out during rona, though they should since they had a large part in creating that mess. If I had more than few years there, I'd seriously have a hard time leaving right now. I do know one thing, my FDX squadron bros are a bit nervous (as many pax carrier dude were back in 2020). One is about to peace out to long term orders and the other is questioning leaving DAL after indoc for FDX. That may be more to do with the realization of the pain of driving an hour to a major DAL hub to commute to MEM to sit reserve...

Keep optimizing that life/jobs/money. Buy an L-39 and fly for fun!

Am I reading that correctly, the 11% MBCBP is subject to 401(a)(17) limits? Given that company contributions to their 401k are subject to the same limits, they'll be be capped at $66k (2023) for contributions into their combined savings plan. Do FDX guys at least get "cash over cap" back to them as taxable income? At first glance, seems like a bad deal for those hired after this gets passed. With the protections in place for pensions, I'd much rather take my chances with their pension/401k combo. If the pension goes away, FDX will lose one of their biggest edges over the pax carriers in recruiting candidates.

If true...thought police in action. I used to shake my head when reading books that showcased how people could quickly turn against their own countrymen (eg...WW2). To arbitrarily do such a thing with out even the least bit of investigation is insane and indicative of what is wrong with cancel culture today. The arrogance of the organization to not even offer an apology or recompense, is also indicative of those who push cancel culture.

Those team names seem to fit the name of this thread...

What you boys are talking about is something called tolerance. Just because they go back, doesn't mean anything changes...it still sucks lol. When rona kicked off, I wasn't too concerned with furlough based on my seniority, but since I wasn't doing anything else at the time, I ran some numbers. Figured out that I could survive easily just on my part time pay cards, as long as all my tenants payed (they did). So that was my plan, work 6 days a month. That's how much I didn't want to go on orders lol. If I just sat one day of alert/month on top that, I could have easily afforded to keep flying my planes a fair amount.

We're talking different sacrifices here. Not too many of my high school/college friends who went into the civilian professional world have had their company send them away for months on end. Most can't even wrap their minds around leaving their family for two weeks at a time, let alone doing it multiple times a year...not long after being gone for 4-6 months. They rarely (if ever) miss a holiday at home, let alone multiple in a row. I don't know a single one of them that missed their daughters wedding (not me, but a close friend) because their company sent them short notice on a 6 month business trip and wouldn't excuse them or try to find them a replacement. Yes we signed up for this, but they're still sacrifices that most in the civilian world will never understand. That, along with all of what pooter said above, wear on you.

I get what you're saying, and agree to an extent. But having lived both lives, I understand how much better it can be. When I was full time, I didn't realize how much it consumed my life. We give up things that the vast majority of the U.S. couldn't fathom, because we think it's normal...it is not. I don't shit on them for staying, you're right, someone has to do it...or they could rotate to the airline then back onto orders as desired. Shit will get done eventually. However, I'll certainly show them how much better my life is now vs. when I was full time. Lots of squadron mates who said they'd never go to the airlines, are now at the airlines and are kicking themselves for not going earlier.

Then there is my squadron where, for the last 4 or 5 years, we'd ONLY hire you if you were willing to take an AGR gig (we don't technicians anymore) for 2-3 years. We had no room for DSG's. Lately, we tend to turn back nearly a years worth of orders every year (or let other positions on base use them)....that's after giving a years worth of orders to guest help for alert. I think we're on track to do the same this year as well. Turns out, when you live close to a major hub of an air line in which 40% of your squadron is employed, unless they're within 5 of their 20, few guys want long term orders. This isn't to take away from your post, I'm truly happy to hear guys are enjoying AD. It's more to add clarity about opportunities in the ANG. Overseas opportunities appear to be aplenty right now in the ANG. We have one guy who will likely spend 3ish years in USAFE on MPA days to get him across the finish line to a retirement. We have another guy taking a few months of orders in Hickam, and we were told it could be up to year (possibly indefinite orders) if wanted. I know 4 other dudes working long term orders OCONUS (mostly USAFE). There seems to be a bunch of other full time CONUS orders opportunities as well (cough...brabus...). In the ANG, you also have the BAO gig, which can be a legit opportunity for the family to experience a sleepy overseas assignment. If I hadn't been trying to get hours ASAP for the airlines, I'd have gladly done the BAO gig for our state partner...2-3 years in Budapest doesn't sound all that bad. I know another guy who did 2-3 years in Tallinn, Estonia who had a ball. Having spent 3+ months in Tallinn, I'd have gladly spent 3+ years there.

I found a pic of the guy.

One classmate has done a single ops tour and has spent the rest of his career bouncing between Luke and Eglin. I think he's going to extend/PCA at Eglin to finish his 20. I get why he stays, hard to leave when you've been shielded from deployments most of your career and the ops tempo is pretty decent. The rest who have done ops to ops, all bailed to the ANG or just got out after their UPT ADSC. I have multiple examples of these two tales and they all pretty much have the same result. ...a tale of two careers. Break break 1. Airline guys within 5 years of their 20. 2. Airline guys who commute. The bonus takers in my squadron fall into the two categories above. The guys in the number 1 category would have stayed regardless of the bonus. The $50k may have swayed a guy that falls into the the #2 category, though I think his cross country commute to ANC has more to do with that. PM sent

Yes, without much thought, I can think of 3...Died, Djibouti and somewhere else in the middle east. 2 of them were within 2 years of 20. It's out, not good enough. Big bonus (3 years) = $50k, small bonus = $30k.

In his defense, they also said my early retirement submission in VPC would "seamlessly transition to myFSS"...nearly 5 months and still waiting (historically has taken a few weeks). As of yesterday they are still "working out some bugs, check back later." Hopefully that "later" is before I retire at the end of the month.

Herein lies one of my biggest issues with the .gov/military as a whole. Little to no room for interpretation of intent. I became painfully aware of this as the DETCO of a recent activation. You're not allowed to do what everyone fully understands and agrees is the obvious/right thing to do. BUT because it's a one off situation, none of the FM/JAG/Senior leader weenies are willing to take even the smallest amount of risk, because it's "coloring between the lines." It didn't specifically state we could do it, so we make life painful on everyone and do the most illogical COA. Also, my point still stands. When I said "high level leadership," that extends to those above HAF.

Pfft, forced to do the same with my enlisted girlfriends...you don't see me asking for a celebration month for my persecution!

Let this be a lesson to you young punks who still think they care about you. This is what high level leadership thinks of you. They don't care enough to roll out a bonus before the 9th month of the FY. Make your decisions accordingly.

Same! Agreed with Huggy on lecturing, but I'll certainly offer my opinion to other looking in. However, I won't feel bad for their plight after they just spent the pond crossing me telling me how they've been a WB Capt since 38, showing pics of their Porsche, Seneca (and Bonanza), their 200k+ backyard pool (house near a famous beach), their apartment in AMS...then lectured me on how we should support age 67 because they "need" the next two years. These people exist!

It depends.... Fly your schedule and go home, it's probably a safe bet. Min sked kinda of guy and/or drop liberally and it's a bit high. Hustle and fly premium and it's quite low. Also profit sharing can skew the data a bit. Min reserve guarantee (DAL) of 72 hours actually shacks the pay rate x 1,000 formula. Min line guarantee of 65 hours = pay rate x 900ish. Pooter offers sage advice above. I always advise guys budget on min line guarantee (or less) and use the rest as found money to pay for kids college, buy toys, hookers/blow, etc... I keep my budget much lower than 65 hours, but I don't have kids and have a fair amount of rental income. This made going from 330FO to 717FO a stress free event during rona. I saw dudes freaking out because they "needed" to get 85 hours at 330 rates to maintain their budget....yikes! I'm trying to dig through years with little MLOA, but it's all a bit hazy. Here are some real numbers for your data collection. Actually, over on APC there is a year end pay thread every year. Some guys get all butt hurt about it being a dick measuring contest, but I've always found it to be useful data if they give you deets. I've always been jobs where anyone was free to see how much I'm paid, so talking pay has never bothered me. 2022 - Pay rate Jan - Mar = $167/hr, Apr - Oct = $247/hr. I only worked half of November before going on long term MLOA. Worked the premium trip game pretty hard for 6 of those months but dropped liberally in July. Ended at $261k + $42k in 401k. 20/21 - Too difficult to guess because of a deployment and down time from rona. 2019 - Pay rate was $208/hr. Almost no premium, but hustled a little for more efficient trips. Ended with $236k + 38K in 401k.

Pentagon loses $85 million in F-35 parts... But by gawd, you had better not accidentally use your GTC (while activated) to purchase something that your per diem more than covers! 🙄

We had a dude who said no to the jab and was sent home with like 6 rides remaining in the B-Course. So now, instead of having 4-ship flight lead, he's headed back to start the B-Course over again...what was the cost to the AF on that boneheaded move to not let him finish? One of the more gratifying things I did as a SQ/CC, was sign the paperwork to wash his UIF clean and send him back to training.

I think they're busy at work designing the next software that will make life even harder on the force (pex 2.0, dts 6.9, mypay 2020???). We have a few guys trying to retire right now and myFSS certainly isn't helping their blood pressure. I'm within a month of retirement and thankfully I submitted, and received, my retirement order before the switchover. But now I'm trying to get my early retirement stuff finalized before I lose my CAC, but something that only took a few weeks years ago, now is on month 4. Reason? myFSS switchover (supposedly). Yay, "advancement..." How is myEval 2.0 working out? I've said it numerous times on here, very few "improvements" the AF has rolled out over my 22 years has actually helped me. Mostly it's just dumped the duties of others onto me and has caused me to spend more and more time doing admin, and less time on my real job. Get off my lawn!

I didn't think the F2F was all that crazy in the Tweet, and found the RMI to be helpful in visualizing the whole thing. Now that J2 on the bottom right...WTF was that instrument actually for? I don't think I found it useful for anything.

I'd wager that the vast majority of the population feels this way, they're just in positions that mostly force them to keep their opinions to themselves.

You want efficiency...6 weeks at the ole Academy of Military science! Too bad they shut it down.

I'm not targeting anything, just going off my observations from layovers and how they've changed over the last decade. PDX used to be my favorite layover, but that's turned to shit. I'm not basing that off the news, just what I've witnessed with my own eyes. I saw that even REI just announced that they're pulling out of downtown PDX, largely due to break-ins and theft. There is a reason they've moved our hotels out of the downtown.