The Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp. (PBGC) website is the best source for answers on retirement. You may want to look at that sites Q and A section.
As of right now American has made no changes to the retirement plan in the TWU/AA agreement. It is expected that while in bankruptcy they will seek relief from the plan by turning it over to the PBGC. If they do your retirement plan will freeze probably at the point they filed for bankruptcy. ( in other words it would be backdated to the time of the filing.)
However your retirement should pay out exactly what you have earned up to that date or the date the court determines which will not be earlier than the date of filing. By Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) laws and the PBGC rules you should not be harmed further than that, except for the fact the PBGC does not cover retiree medical. While looking at the PBGC site there are charts that show payouts at different dates keep in mind that is for people that have more retirement monies than the PBGC will payout. Right now the maximum in a year is 54,000 dollars. No one covered by the TWU/AA retirement will exceed that amount.
Thanks,
RD Mullings
TWU Organizing