Ah numero crunchero mon vieux,
Glad to see you back...You touched on the subject of OABL/ or one of the VETA overseas companies being litigated against for age discrimination etc. (quite likely in the UK shortly) etc. As far as I know two/potentially 3 ASL Capts' have already struck deals with the company to work beyond the 60 point;and have persuaded the CAD of the wisdom of that to boot, something which more than sticks in the craw as us mere mainline mortals can't even get the company to even discuss working beyond 55.
Yes, I take your point of life in a blue suit and knowing what we were getting into; however, we could NOT have foreseen COSAP 94, "CX having no place in the cargo game" and the formation of ASL (which
f@#*ed my command and yours for that matter for 2 or 3 years) and in addition Basings, which were not on the table then...most guys were more than happy to get to that 15 year point, p@@s off from HKG, and hopefully leave town on the same horse that they rode in on..funny that, how divorces' always seem to be apposite around the time of the provident fund payout!!! Things have now changed for better or worse..and whilst I'm as keen as you are to play with my toys..if I had any...I will still have to carry on beyond 55..be it with CX or somebody else....If the expansion carries on as planned..with or without the intervention of H5N1..and as we've acquired KA we'd be stuffed anyway...double the aircraft parked up this time...then surely the implications of blocked commands should not be an issue..HEY , you're the maths gnome...you tell me...In addition, I feel that it is unfair to lower this to an 'A' vs 'B' scale thing..it's more complicated than that...correct me if I'm wrong....when our pay scales were frozen the B scale salary scale was designed to merge at B scale Captain year 12 with the old A scale salary.and then continue to rise...the rationale being that the last A scaler would have gone by then..ie he would be 55. The whole thing is further muddied of course by the company as usual cutting deals with extendees/STC's/Freighter extensions etc. etc..
Harbour Dweller...whilst not knowing your personal circumstances and just trying to play devils advocate, it would be interesting to know how you would view this if you were approaching the wrong side of 50, (squeeky bum time as Alex Ferguson calls it) and things were perhaps not going swimmingly;perhaps you would have a different take on being able to carry on /not carry on at your leisure...Anyway, plus ca change..Good times NUM CRUNCH..Good times..
