Congratulations to Continental employees for their hard work in achieving this level of profit-sharing. I hate to be a buzz-kill, but let's keep one thing in mind about profit-sharing in this industry:
Management would like nothing better than to lower your base wages and offer a bigger percentage of your compensation in "gain-sharing," "profit-sharing," "incentive-based compensation," etc. Management would like nothing better than to have everyone scrambling around, cutting corners, bending rules, etc. to get the on-time up a percentage point or two and then throw everyone an extra couple hundred bucks for your trouble every quarter.
Of course, management controls the books and how profitable the company is; management also sets all the performance matrices.
Profit-sharing is great, but not at the expense of a base salary commensurate with the responsibilities of being a professional airline pilot. I can just see my management now, touting this CAL profit-sharing announcement at our negotiations on compensation. QX management has been pushing a "migration to market wages [downward for us] coupled with increased gain-sharing." They're hoping a profit-sharing feeding frenzy will provide the votes needed on a TA that will do just that.