Retiring from Continental
 

Okay, I need somebody to disabuse me of my ignorance regarding retirement benefits from working at Continental, please. Particularly as the TA seems to not be happening soon, I need to do some long-range planning.

As I understand it, Continental has an "A Fund" of 2.2%. I'm told that this is like a conventional pension, wherein your years of service are multiplied by 2.2% and the average of your three highest earning years. So, to make the math easy, 25 years and a maximum salary average of $150,000 would give you 25 x .022 x 150,000 = an annual pension of $82,500. Is this remotely accurate?

Also, I understand there is a B fund of 12.75%. Does this mean that 12.75% of our income goes into what is essentially a 401k, or is this an employer contribution of 12.75% separate from our regular salary? Or is it an employer matched contribution up to 12.75%?

Please pardon my ignorance. I've had conflicting reports. Thanks.

If you're a CAL employee (sorry, co-worker), call your MEC office and ask to talk to your R&I staffer. They can give you the details.

The A fund is a defined benefit plan, CAL's is frozen and if you're not already covered by it, you never will be.

The B fund is a defined contribution plan where the company contributes x% of earned income.

If you were not an employee before May 31, 2005, then you are not even part of the "A" plan or pension plan. If you were, it is frozen and you should be getting updated benefits information regarding what that plan is worth when you do retire.

The "B" plan is the defined contribution plan set up to replace the frozen defined-benefit/pension plan. You get 12.75% from the company based on your eligible earnings regardless of what you contribute to your 401(k). It actually shows as a separate account when you log into your Scwhab account. The other will be your 401(k) contributions. Even if you contribute 0% you will be getting 12.75% from the company each year. There is no additional match from the company for s-CO pilots.

Are you employed as a pilot with s-CO currently?

I'm a furloughee starting at the CAL side soon. ALPA wasn't at my FAM day, so I was trying to get some things answered before class. Thanks for the info.