Incidentally, this is the first year ever the 3% hasn't been paid.
Not quite true. In 2003 (or was it 2004?), all EK staff got a 5% pay rise. So did the pilots - the same 5% rise as everyone else, which you could either call a 2% payrise plus the contractural 3% increment, or we got the whole 5% as did everyone else, but no increment.