Numbersguy, the answer to your question is early retirement and the 3% penatly is what was in the employee benefits handbook twenty years ago when I arrived here. Looking at your post a change in the giving up early retirement is no big deal, you are over forty and have been here eight years. Some of us will be here over 25 years when we reach 55 years of age, so maybe just maybe we don't really see working 35+ years for a 25 year pension pay out. I wrote FWS about our pension in 1994 after OBRA'93 when our pension was going to be capped and we got that fixed(not because of my letter but because of a unified voice from the crewforce calling foul). So, no I'm not inclined to give this up as easily as you but I have more time invested here than you.