This isn't a profit share. It is an extra allowance just like Christmas or New Years. I've seen bigger payouts from hotel counters on long layovers, and I've certainly flown PT tickets which cost many times this amount.
We are, in a very real way, paying for the fuel hedging debacle. Losing over 1 billion USD on hedges is unconscionable. It is little better than taking hundreds of millions and betting it at the casinos in Macau night after night. The architect(s) of this program and ALL of those above him/her/them should never work as managers or executives again. They are wholly unworthy. In what other industry do execs get away with this? Hmm, banking and government. Great company! I think it is fraud, waste, and abuse.
In terms of personal finance, the equivalent would be spending many thousands of USD each month on life insurance and income protection and hoping something bad happens. How cynical would that be? Well, there you have it. These muppets are about the most cynical and incompetent managers I have ever witnessed, and I flew in the military, so that is really saying something.
They are absolutely hopeless at leading people any more skilled than the typical office minion. They only know 1800s colonial servitude and 1980s era slash and burn cost cutting. They don't have a creative bone between the whole lot of them. They view the airline industry as little different from producing widgets in a third world sweatshop. It's all about spreadsheets for them. Nothing else matters. Well, look at your spreadsheets now CX... They are disgusting, and it has nothing to do with the employees. It's all on you, CX execs.