There are those who say Delta and Northwest may go the same route. The government-run pension fund pays out a maximum of $45,000 a year, but that's for people who retire at age 65. For those who retire at age 60, including airline pilots, the payout is only around $28,000 a year.ommercial airline pilots must retire at age 60. That hasn't been a problem in the past because pilots had generous pensions. But with several of the major airlines in bankruptcy, pilots are seeing their pensions reduced and some are fighting mandatory retirement.
To determine how much retired pay you may be eligible to receive, the first step is to calculate the number of equivalent years of service. The formula for computing equivalent years of service for Reserve retired pay at age 60 is fairly simple: Total number of Creditable Retirement Points, divided by 360.
This was from 1968 to 1974 so trying to assemble the necessary forms has been problematic. I finally got a Retirement Points statement from the Army Human Resources Command. This is a grid that shows Non-Active Duty points and Active Duty points for 6 years. I thought I was home free, but the VA says that one of the years shows 15 points for non-active duty but total points of 0 so that year doesnât count and I only have 5 years of eligible service.