Starclipper it is not a matter of giving anything up. The A Plan was worth a max of $130K in 1996. It is worth a max of $130k today. When today's new hires retire in 2045 it will be worth $130k in per year retirement benefits. because of the change in the law ALPA says it will cost us about $4 in Benefits elsewhere to gain $1 in A Plan increase. There are all sorts of trade offs in the A Plan B Plan scales, for instance it is likely today's new hire could max out his high 5 in 2030, the next 10 years he will be working to add 2% per year. His last 5 years he will gain no advantage.

Mathematically at some point our "capped" A plan value will relatively decrease enough that a cash over cap B Fund will be more valuable. Some of us think that point is rapidly approaching. This assumes some measure of inflation and increases in yearly pay for FDX pilots.