Originally Posted by Gone Flying

to answer the second question.there were two basic setups for pension plans, DB only and both DB and DC.

DL had a DB only plan and formula was (2.4% * YOS * FAE) where YOS was years of service (max 25) and FAE was your highest 36 consecutive months of earnings in your last 120 months. So as long as you had 25 years you got a 60% FAE pension. NW and US air were similar.

AA and UA had a both DB and DC setup, they had an A fund (pension) and a B fund (DC plan). UAs formula was (1.5% * YOS * FAE) with no cap on years of service PLUS an 11% B fund. AAs was similar except it was (1.25% * YOS* FAE) and excluded your first year.

now my opinion is we should absolutely not try to resurrect a DB only pension. IF we decide to go down that road I would much prefer a plan similar in setup to UA’s old plan or UPS’s current plan where you get a smaller DB plan benefit but also have DC money that is yours in addition to that.

UPS current plan as I understand it is a 12% DC plan plus a DB plan where you get the greater of (1% * FAE* YOS) or a fixed dollar amount (I think $4500) * YOS. In both cases YOS is capped at 30 years.