I don't think I was "tricked" into leaving. But after 34 years, let's just say my trust in management was seriosly lacking. March 15 could have rolled around and they could not have paid us, using delaying tactics (as thay have used in past contract negotiations) or perhaps filing for BK where I would have been a creditor thay owed money to. I just plain don't trust them.
I had been considering retiring late 2020 or early 2021 anyway. I'm 64, and didn't want to hang around there until my 70's. There are other things I want to do besides getting up before dawn, stuck in traffic commuting, etc. When they froze the TWU pensions, I upped my 401k contribution, and every raise we received since then went to the 401k. The insurance HRA would have been great, but I won't waste a second lamenting over it. I knew how much the AA retiree medical,lots of private insurance plans, and cobra monthly rates were going to cost.Cobra for 30 months at employee rates saves me at least $500/mo. and it will get me to medicare age. When I left, AA wasn't sure about the new TWU/IAM HRA in the contract, so I opted to get paid for my unused sk time, which is paying for my 30 months of cobra.
I read the same thing about $135k in retiree out of pocket medical expenses, and I agree that the company knows what they're doing. They have a whole cabal of lawyers who are the masters in the art of manipulating the fine print.
I truly hope that AAL will be "cash positive" , and stay that way. Everyone's frozen pension depends on it.
I hope everyone takes full advantage of the 401k match, Max out your 401k contributions if you can, Save save save...so you can retire before you're too old. I have zero stress, am keeping busy, and sleeping 7-8 hours a night.
There were more people I would have liked to say goodbye to, but they showed us to the door really fast.