For pilots, it sponsors a defined-benefit pension plan, a defined-contribution plan and gives access to a 401(k) that doesn't include any company match.

WSJ: AMR Bankruptcy Upends (Family) Financial Planning

Most proposals for creating a defined-contribution alternative to a state pension plan or Social Security use an IRA or 401(k) model.

FORBES: How Three Texas Counties Created Personal Social Security Accounts and Prospered

Union leaders said that they liked the look of the raise, but that what they really needed was a defined-benefit pension plan, not the defined-contribution plan that management had offered them.

ECONOMIST: America's airlines and the war