Accruing longevity while on furlough- Which Major Airlines had this?

[densoo]

Just a small correction. Not ALL the 634 CAL pilots were offered the option to flow back to Express in 2001. About 80 pilots were a straight furlough with no options and no lump sum payout.

True. In a way they were double-furloughed. They were furloughed by the mainline to Express, but then too junior at Express and furloughed to the street. There are 80 guys who might be able to tell their grandkids that one day I was furloughed by two airlines in a single day. How many can say that. How many want to.

 

[CLE145CA]

All CAL "furloughs," including those who were never at Express, would also get to flow back to jobs at Express.

That is not entirely true. Not ALL furloughs could come to Express. Express would only take the number of pilots who flowed up to CAL during the duration of the flow-through agreement(s). As an example, if a total of 900 pilots had flowed up to CAL over the years, then only that many could come back to Express if CAL furloughed. If CAL furloughed 901+ then those extra would go to the street.

 

[typhoonpilot]

I tried posting this earlier, but I think it got dumped when the Flightinfo server crashed.

I was curious which major airlines allowed pilots to accrue longevity towards pay while out on furlough? AA, UAL, US Air, CAL, NWA, Delta....

My friend at Delta was out for 3 years, and when he came back, he was at 6 year pay (he already had 3 years in before the furlough).

I used to know the answer to this in regards to American and United. When they had pilots on furlough previously they did get some longevity negotiated at some point after their return. The American furloughees of 93-96 definitely had a partial longevity for pay purposes as did the United furloughees of the late 70s. I believe even America West had partial longevity for their pilots furloughed in the 90s. Of course, the previoulsy mentioned Delta deal was the best. At USAir(ways) we tried to use those facts to get our MEC to negotiate some accrual for our pay purposes when we returned from furlough in 1998. We never succeeded as the AAA MEC only ever bargained for the benefit of senior pilots.

What we at USAirways did get, and which was one of the biggest reasons to return, was longevity for retirement purposes. So after 8 years on furlough, those of us who returned had roughly 10 years in towards our final retirement. When the pension plan was termintated that become a moot point, but it was a very lucrative reason to return at the time. Some of the older guys returned just long enough to put in retirement papers.

The days of deals like that are over. As you can see, the younger posters who are recalling more recent furloughs have no recollection, nor did they get any longevity upon return.


Typhoonpilot