Airtran Questions

[Displaced]

Hello,
I was recently offered a interview and had a couple of questions.
1: What on average is your take home pay(1st year-3rd year).
2: How much do you pay for health insurance(family of 5)
I know this is all subject to change with the contract negotiation's but I need to know if I can support my family.
Thanks in advance

 

[Old Crow]

I've been averaging 95 to 100 hours pay credit per month on reserve times 42.75 per hour.
Health insurance is very difficult and almost cripling for a family of 5. Somewhere around 495 cash/mth.
The company proposed 38/hr. at a 70 hr. guarantee for newhires. If that is going to be the amount, the second year will have to go much higher than the proposed amount to recoup your loses the first year.

The answer to your question is no you can't without dipping into savings every other month.

Money wise, AirTran doesn't make since unless you live near Atlanta.

 

[Thunderchief]

I will fly about 930 hours this year. 4 months yr 2 pay rest 3 yr pay. I'll do 70k to 72k projected. month of Oct 83 hrs, 18 days off. With numbers like those I'm obviously not bragging about Tranny pay. And I second what he said, insurance premiums sucky sucky....
-TC

 

[Lear70]

6 month reserve on 100 hours average credit * $42.75 = $4,275 minus taxes, dues, etc (about 25-30% depending on your 401(k) contribution).

Regular line credits average about 80 hours so you can stay on reserve and make $4,275 pre-tax a month or you can be a lineholder and have a life and make about $3,420 a month PRE-tax.

Total take-home income 1st year was around $36,000 (not including per diem) and I was lucky enough not to have to get health insurance through the company. Per diem averaged 400-450 a month.

I used about $7,000 of my savings surviving 1st year pay.

2nd year and thereafter health premiums drop to around $300 a month family coverage Bronze HMO (lowest-priced plan). I was on track to take home about $38,000 on 2nd year pay after taxes & 401(k) deductions, about $3,000 a month not including per diem, and had used an additional $3,000 of my savings, not leaving me a whole lot to play with.

You *can* make more, if you bid reserve all the time like some friends of mine do or live in domicile and volunteer your off-days for premium pay, but that's about it until you upgrade.

I was looking at 7 years if I had to remain at F/O pay to just break even from where I'd have been monetariliy if I'd have stayed at PCL on the RJ, and upgrade was looking to be about 4 - 4 1/2 years.

 

[airline#5]

fo Pay...
bad, Bad, Bad

 

[j41driver]

I know what my bank account looks like at the end of the month with just 1 kid at home. There's definately not 4 more kid's worth left.

 

[veneratio]

Damn, those pay rates blow

 

[Afterprop]

Also, you're not allowed to contribute to your 401K until after your've had one year on property . . .

Other than that, most of the info above is spot on . .

 

[Lear70]

Forgot about that... elected on the 401(k) but it didn't kick in of course until 2nd year.

I also have quite a bit I take out for flex spending, which lowers my take-home pay but *WAS* making up for it until I lost all of it when they gave me the boot.

$450 bucks unspent in medical flex spending you have no legal way to get back or use after your term date. :angryfire:

 

[Sun Devil 2000]

I've been averaging 95 to 100 hours pay credit per month on reserve times 42.75 per hour.

NOT TRUE! I'm on reserve and I never fly. I have flown 3 legs in 3 weeks. While everyone says this is weird I don't believe it! If you come here plan on sitting around A LOT. Nice if you live in ATL but not if you commute.

 

[Citrusflyer]

NOT TRUE! I'm on reserve and I never fly. I have flown 3 legs in 3 weeks. While everyone says this is weird I don't believe it! If you come here plan on sitting around A LOT. Nice if you live in ATL but not if you commute.

That is, most likely, because we haven't taken an aircraft since the summer, and none are coming until Jan. Once the planes start coming the movement will begin again, reserve will shorten dramatically. Of course I could be wrong, it's happened before.....

 

[Lear70]

And then you look on the "other" message board and see trip drops denied for insufficient reserves... yet Sun Devil is sitting around...

The "logic" defies logic. But then again, who EVER understands crew sched at ANY airline.

All I can tell you is that my strategy worked perfectly, I had 14 days off a month on reserve and credited 98-102 hours regularly. Off reserve was another story, but I'm all about days off...

There's probably a lot of truth to what Citrus is saying, too...

 

[PCL_128]

NOT TRUE! I'm on reserve and I never fly. I have flown 3 legs in 3 weeks. While everyone says this is weird I don't believe it! If you come here plan on sitting around A LOT. Nice if you live in ATL but not if you commute.

Sun Devil is right, at least for this past month. I had several days of reserve that they didn't call me at all, and when they did call me, it was usually only for a turn or a quick overnight. I'm not complaining, though. I live here in ATL, so it's great for me. This just emphasized how important it is to rework our reserve system in a new contract, though. Sun Devil wants to fly while I would rather sit around home. A decent reserve system should allow me to bypass, or should at least have an enforceable call first/last priority system. The new ASA TA has all of these things and more for reserves, from what I've heard. As a major airline, I would think that we can get better than our regional brothers at the other end of the concourse.

 

[Murphy]

Sun Devil is right, at least for this past month. I had several days of reserve that they didn't call me at all, and when they did call me, it was usually only for a turn or a quick overnight. I'm not complaining, though. I live here in ATL, so it's great for me. This just emphasized how important it is to rework our reserve system in a new contract, though. Sun Devil wants to fly while I would rather sit around home. A decent reserve system should allow me to bypass, or should at least have an enforceable call first/last priority system. The new ASA TA has all of these things and more for reserves, from what I've heard. As a major airline, I would think that we can get better than our regional brothers at the other end of the concourse.

ding ding! winner. i will never vote for a ta that doesn't have those items in it for reserve. take a look at the frontier contract. they like to compare us to an emerging airline. frontier has been around as long as us and they have all those items. frontier also froze health premiums for the first two years of their contract. i was talking to a BoD member yesterday and he said that kind of stuff will never happen with this mgt team. i am getting tired of the defeatist attitude. it is time to break the paradigm with a new union BoD and new negotiating team. i am sick of this eyore woe is me "i hope we didn't step on our members by voting down the ta" attitude that permeats what is left of the npa.

 

[c9skytrain]

Afterprop is incorrect. You can contribute to your 401k any time you want. The company does not contribute until after the first year.

 

[Sun Devil 2000]

Afterprop is incorrect. You can contribute to your 401k any time you want. The company does not contribute until after the first year.

Benefits told me that I could not start contributing until my year anniversary.

 

[PCL_128]

Afterprop is incorrect. You can contribute to your 401k any time you want. The company does not contribute until after the first year.

Not true. The only thing you can do is a rollover from a previous plan. Any further contributions can't be made until after the first year.