Airlines and benefits

jeskoe

jeskoe

New Member
For those of you that work (or have worked) for an airline, I was kind of curious what kind of benefits you receive, i.e. medical/dental, paid sick and vacation days, and anything else. I would be curious to hear from anyone, but especially those that work for regional airlines.
 
At american I received full dental/health benefits while working part time as a ramp agent, but everything is the same as any other company!
 
It really varies alot from airline to airline and the contracts they have negotiated. Health/dental, accident disability, vision, 401K, etc. are normal for a good regional.
 
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At american I received full dental/health benefits while working part time as a ramp agent, but everything is the same as any other company!

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Huh? Tell me that you don't think benefits are standardized....
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For those of you that work (or have worked) for an airline, I was kind of curious what kind of benefits you receive, i.e. medical/dental, paid sick and vacation days, and anything else. I would be curious to hear from anyone, but especially those that work for regional airlines.

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Medical/Dental - there are several programs through SWA, but I opted for the HMO (yeah, I know). Dental coverage is actually really good, and so is the vision.

Sick days are based on how many days you work without calling in. You can build up to a certain amount, and when you call in, they take 8 hours out of the bank. Christmas and Thanksgiving are the only paid holidays, but everyone is automatically scheduled off. If you want to work those days, you get 8 hours holiday plus time and half for what you work. We get one day a month (Jan-Oct) to declare a paid day off. Vacation depends on seniority. I've been with SWA for a little over two years, and I had two weeks vacation for this year.

That's pretty much the benefits run down for Southwest (except for the obvious flight benefits).
 
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Huh? Tell me that you don't think benefits are standardized....

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Nah I know they are not standardized, but almost evey company will give a full-time employee health benefits
 
Health benefits? Hardly.

You have to BUY the health plan - it gets deducted from your pay. I hardly call that a benefit. Same with Dental.

There was a bill in congress recently to control health losses for the insurers, which would have passed on savings to the consumer.

Ironically, the democrats voted it down, probably because it limited tort liability against the health insurance companies.

Too bad, would have cut our health premiums in half.

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The most sought after benefit by most new hire airline employees is TRAVEL. Many airlines see a lot of new hires around the holidays who then quit as soon as they have visited all their relatives.
 
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You have to BUY the health plan - it gets deducted from your pay. I hardly call that a benefit. Same with Dental.

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That's kind of the way it works for everyone these days. Very few people get free health insurance. And when those people who are getting it try to keep it, the companies that are paying huge bonuses to their execs say, oh, no, we can't afford it.
 
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You have to BUY the health plan - it gets deducted from your pay. I hardly call that a benefit. Same with Dental.

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That's kind of the way it works for everyone these days. Very few people get free health insurance. And when those people who are getting it try to keep it, the companies that are paying huge bonuses to their execs say, oh, no, we can't afford it.

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And most employers are subsidizing the health plans (many heavily). For most people, it would not be possible to get equivalent health care coverage for less than they pay through their employer (this is especially true for families). Thus, I would call that a benefit.
 
That's not entirely true MF, it's not really a "subsidy" in most cases. Usually it's a matter of buying in bulk. The expenses of the medical plan are passed entirely to the employee unless there is a deductible program in place.

Some companies (very few from what I am told) will go for a lower priced premiuim (to the employees) by picking up a deductible, that is, they will pay the first $500 or $1000 of the employee's family health expenses per year.

My brother has a company in NY where he picks up the first $2500 of the expenses and the insurance company says he is a rarity.

So you have two factors for health care price - buying power of many employees and how much of a deductible the company is willing to pick up.
 
At Delta for many years non union employees never had to pay for medical or dental. The only thing we paid for was extra life insurance and spouse life insurance and same for kids. Then last year we had to start paying. You would have thought the world ended. The old timers gripped and complained. You would have thought they were losing there entire check. This year we had to pay even more. For my family of 4 for medical dental and extras is close to $250 a month. Most of the people could take United Healthcare (ppo) or Blue Cross/blue shield(hmo). After checking around our rates are still rather cheap compared to some major companies. But still after 11 yrs of not paying its hurts.
 
Also at Delta they changed the way sick time is handled. I am not sure how it works or is anyone else there. Vacation is accrued. After 1 yr its 2 weeks, 5 yrs 3 weeks, 10 yrs 4 weeks, 17 yrs 5 weeks and 25 yrs 6 weeks I think that is ther right order.

As far as regionals I think ASA is now line as we are
 
Jesko:

Benifits vary widely between companies. Right now my company as the following

Travel fee paid by company for yearly travel pass
medical / dental $180 / month for my wife & myself which covers just about everything.
401K
disability
10-17 days off per month
1 wk vac / year for new employees
2 wk vac / 2nd year etc
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Disney USED to be free medical if you went with the HMO, but that was almost ten years ago. Insurance rates are out of control, so it's VERY difficult to find a company in any market that offers free health insurance. I pay about $40 a month for all of my health benefits, and that covers me and my wife (life insurance is included in that figure as well). That's less than the $80 or so I was paying for not-as-good insurance at Disney, and Universal's plan was even worse. I don't even think Sea World HAD a health insurance plan for employees. Affordable health insurance is the Holy Grail of the political world anyway. Consumers want it, corporations don't want to pay for, and governments don't want to subsidize it. Besides, if we DID have it, we'd probably just find something else to complain about.
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After years of getting free medical, it sure DOES hurt to pay for it! I had free coverage from SWA for 15 years. Now that I fly for AE I'll have to pay. Even an independant plan with out any prescription coverage where I pay 40% of fees out of pocket is still going to cost me upwards of $70/mo. That's not including dental either.

Free unlimited flight benefits at SWA were cool too. Buddy passes were free and you didn't have to wait 2 years either. No free flights with AMR, at least until the 5 yr mark. I get charged to fly on my own airline, so I often jumpseat offline for free. On my pay, I simply can't afford to take my company to commute to work!

SWA gave me $1 for $1 401K match. Not so at AMR but they do have a program. Haven't enrolled in it yet though. Both companies offer an ESPP program too.

Profit sharing: Well, it's obvious who is making a profit. I came away from SW with a huge profit sharing account. That's cool. I may need that to live off as a regional pilot! We don't get that with AMR. But every now and again we get a $100 bonus of some type if we meet our monthly ontime goals.
 
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Free unlimited flight benefits at SWA were cool too. Buddy passes were free and you didn't have to wait 2 years either. No free flights with AMR, at least until the 5 yr mark. I get charged to fly on my own airline, so I often jumpseat offline for free. On my pay, I simply can't afford to take my company to commute to work!

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That sucks about AMR. I think that's the first time I've heard of an airline charging its own people. Maybe it's more common than I thought, though. I like the free unlimited passes for immediate family on SWA. As far as buddy passes go, you either have to win them in some fund raising raffles or not call-in for four months at a time.

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SWA gave me $1 for $1 401K match. Not so at AMR but they do have a program. Haven't enrolled in it yet though. Both companies offer an ESPP program too.

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Everyone at work kept telling me to put money in my 401K from SWA. "It's free money up to 7%" they kept saying. Yeah, well not if I'm leaving in under 5 years, then it's just money I could have used for food...
 
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Everyone at work kept telling me to put money in my 401K from SWA. "It's free money up to 7%" they kept saying. Yeah, well not if I'm leaving in under 5 years, then it's just money I could have used for food...

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It's always a good idea to contribute to a 401K. You take it with you when you leave. Your money and the company match funds. What does 5 years have to do with anything? Are you thinking about the profit sharing that is forfitted if you leave before your 5 year vesting? Yes, that you would loose, but it's all a gift anyway. The 401K on the other hand is FREE money. At least the company match portion is anyway. Free is always a good thing, whether you stay 5 months or 5 years you should take it.
 
As far as I know, the company match goes away unless you are vested. Losing the profit sharing is gonna suck, but it makes me just want to get back that much faster. What did you do for SWA and what city were you in?
 
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