Answer: You are in denial as well.
65 is the new 60.

Not sure why you are so hostile, I'm not in a denial of anything, just purely speculating here, just like you are...

No buyout. Increases pension obligations. Buyouts only make sense when you have NO pension and you can replace the bought out person with a lower paid person. Not the case with pilots for several reasons.
The longer a pilot works before retiring the pension obligation is reduced. ON AVERAGE.

Very true however you are leaving out the huge retraining costs and most of all the lack of instructors and backups in the training pipeline. That's why I am speculating about a buyout - might be a much cheaper option for Big Brown.

...but I guess I'm in denial about the backed-up training department too, I'm probably imagining pilots in training sitting home for months while waiting for their sim. training and/or ioe...

Imagine there're no old guys
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the pilots
Flying for today...

Imagine there's no APAAD
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no Retirement Age Act too
Imagine all the people
Retiring to live life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one...