The "normal" retirement age for the A plan is sixty. If your retire and start to collect prior to age sixty you take a eight percent per year penalty . Example- retire at age fifty-five and you would lose forty percent of your retirement income. The maximum number of years you can have that pay a benefit is thirty, any time spent with the company beyond thirty years doesn't count. The longest anyone has is twenty two years because thats how long the airline has existed. Currently the benefit at twenty-two years of service would replace aprox. 25% of gross earnings minus survivors benefits.