+TSRA,
Thanks for the detailed response. I'm unfortunately very familiar with a DB plan as I used to have one until the company declared bankruptcy and the plan was terminated and turned over to the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp (PBGC) from which I now get only beer money. The big flaw in a DB plan is that the money for your retirement is a promise to pay from the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow; it's not money in your name; you don't actually control it. A DC plan appears to solve that flaw. But I'm no expert on the subject.
I don't want to rush into the deep weeds on this. And you sure as heck don't want to hear about it.
Our DB plan paid 60% of the highest 36 months pay in your last 120 months of working (with a 3% penalty for each year of early retirement).
I was just wondering how the AC pilots calculated their DB plan for those hired prior to 2012.