channa

Hmm...interesting angle. But wouldn't pulling money out in full change the funding ratio of the rest of the pension, possibly requiring additional funding by the airline?

In other words, if a plan is say 80% funded, and 10% of the participants withdrew 100% of their entitlement in full, then the remaining participants now would be ~78% funded, right? A downward change could possibly trigger additional funding requirements by the company. Or if not, at a minimum, could mess with funding projections.

If CO had nothing to lose here, why would they sue? I think CO was trying to stop this from getting out of control so that others wouldn't jump on board.

Section 107

followed by a later quote from another about "sticking to fellow workers"

well, sure, but, um, gee, just where does CO get this money to fund the pensions? does it grow on trees? do they print it? is CO getting a stimulus check? oh, that's right, it comes out of the customer's pockets.

so sure, go ahead and praise those with sketchy ethics while they get their's because they are only taking what's yours.

not that we would ever see CO lower prices because they gain some incremental savings in costs - but ethos like that (and all the other pilferring and abuse) just drives up prices faster than is necessary.

channa

Let's not start on an ethics debate here, because the ethics argument only works if all parties are following similar ethical guidelines.

Once CO lets me view my all-in ticket price as I'm booking it on their website, or processes a refund just as fast as they process a charge, then you can start playing the ethics violin and talk about how they're taking the high road.

Until then, they're paying beancounters to figure out exactly how much float and interest they're making by taking 7-10 days to refund tickets because they have to go into some magical "queue" which takes time to process. *wink* *wink*

And you can bet they're paying lawyers to figure out how to keep their pension contributions as low as possible while still keeping the plan viable (all while tooting their horn each time they make a contribution).

Tod E Tosser

I googled the definition of "rationalization" and this post came up.

channa

LOL.

Thing is it's tough to play clean and win if the other side is playing dirty.

Tod E Tosser

See my previous post.

featheroleather

http://seekingalpha.com/article/1748...comment-773321

Steph3n

you have a truncated link, can't read anything 404 error.

featheroleather

......

Steph3n

http://seekingalpha.com/article/1748...e-compensation

here is the link that featherorleather was wanting to post, it is a comparison of executives packages and airline stock/profits/revenues etc.

thegeneral

No doubt the executives are pissed that there won't be as much there when they decide to gut the pension as has been done with most other airlines.