100K For F/A Early Outs

[swamt]

Why United Will Try $100,000 Buyouts to Shed a Few Flight Attendants
 
Now that's a real EO offer...

 

[jimntx]

I'm in!  Sign me up.  Oh wait...I don't work for United.  Dang! :angry2:

 

[WorldTraveler]

I think you need 15 years.

 

[Glenn Quagmire]

Less than 2 years salary to go look for another job? Clearly it is targeted at those who are at the end of their career and need a nudge.

 

[jimntx]

I heard from a friend that the requirements include a minimum of 25 years service.  What we don't know yet is if there is a limit to the number of takers, and (shades of AA/US non-rev travel) if there are more takers than offers, will they be awarded FCFS or by seniority?

 

[Glenn Quagmire]

...will they be awarded FCFS or by seniority?

Wait, what? 😉

 

[ThirdSeatHero]

4k per year of service - 60k @15 min to a max of 100k @25+

 

[eolesen]

Is it a straight out & gone, or are they throwing in any medical coverage?

Seems a bit spendy, but if they're not bridging the medical, then that would cut off quite a bit on the expense side.

 

[jimntx]

Thanks, Thirdseathero.  I had wondered why it was limited to 25 years when a 15 year requirement would get top of scale people also.
 
For those of you unfamiliar with flight attendant pay scales, most airlines top out at 15 years.  After 15 years a flight attendant only gets a raise in connection with a new contract that has raises for each pay step.  So, these early outs are aimed at the flight attendants who are paid the most per hour.

 

[jimntx]

As this will probably start a firestorm, I'm putting it into a different post.  I always wonder about the people on here who turn their noses up at a $100,000 early out offer because "it's not enough to retire on."   No pension plan or Social Security was ever intended to be your sole means of support in retirement.  If you haven't saved a dime for your retirement, that is not the airline's fault, now is it?
 
I see the flight attendants at DFW getting off a flight from Paris or London carrying shopping bags from Chanel and Louis Vuitton, etc.  If you can afford $800 for a pair of shoes (I heard one in Ops bragging that was all she had to pay for them on sale), you can afford to retire.  If you spent your retirement money on those shoes, well with a little tenderizer and slow, moist cooking, they should be delicious.

 

[xUT]

If they would put it the 401K tax free, it would be a good deal.
But, after taxes, not so much.
JMHO...
B) xUT

 

[WorldTraveler]

 If you spent your retirement money on those shoes, well with a little tenderizer and slow, moist cooking, they should be delicious.

that comment could only come from a man. 🙂

 

[eolesen]

If they would put it the 401K tax free, it would be a good deal.

Pretty certain the various limits on deferral are ~23K per year, so you'd still be taxed on a big chunk of it.

 

[ThirdSeatHero]

Is it a straight out & gone, or are they throwing in any medical coverage?

Seems a bit spendy, but if they're not bridging the medical, then that would cut off quite a bit on the expense side.

 
Heres a link to AFAs Q&A, it covers most of the major points
 
http://www.unitedafa.org/news/details.aspx?id=8860

 

[eolesen]

Not a bad deal if you're at retirement age.

Diminishing returns if you're not quite there, since you'd have to pay COBRA or do Obamacare exchanges for your coverage, and that can quickly eat into what's left after taxes. Paying to get travel is a new one for me.

Whether or not they get the expected 1100 volunteers will be fun to watch. Where I'm struggling is how they're justifying the $110M this program may wind up costing.