There is no doubt that the A Plan is extremely expensive for the company...and through no fault of their own. Due to the effects of inflation, it will eventually go away. But that is down the road quite a bit. Definitely not now!
It is no secret that the new VB plan being proposed by the union shifts significant risk from the company to the pilots. Of course, we have not seen any details, but there would have to been some pretty good incentives for us to accept that risk.
Here is my recommendation:
Leave the A Plan intact as is and slowly increase the B Plan over time to offset the effects of inflation on it. Institute a new "cash-over-the-cap" provision (like everyone else has) so guys are not penalized just because they hit the IRS limits.
Like I said, eventually the A Plan's $130k benefit will offer so little purchasing power that the union will agree to freeze it and it will die. We will then have made the transition to an all B Plan retirement...just like everyone else. But we will have done it slowly.