Good grief, man, you keep going on about this high-five club -- I hope you don't mean to presusme that all Eagle pilots fall into this mythical group, because one thing I can most emphatically tell you is that is NOT the case. Many pilots here DO NOT want to be part of a group that takes the lead in the race to the bottom flying larger airplanes for poverty payrates.

There is a small delusional minority here that craves getting their hands on an Airbus 319, but those tend to be some of the really, really senior/older guys who are hell-bent on staying at Eagle till retirement and some of the really newer (not necessarily younger) guys on the property who think I'd be really 'cool' if we got to fly them -- but I think that really junior crowd just doesn't know any better.

I was taxiing out of LGA with a 40-year-old newhire, when a Spirit (?) A319 taxied in front of us, and he said something along the lines of, "oh man, that would look great in Eagle colors," or "I hope we get those" -- something to that effect. I almost stopped the plane right there to tear him a new one. When we got in the air I explained to him that our pay rates and workrules are complete garbage compared to other carriers operating such an aircraft in this country, and that the going rate for a 5th year FO on an A319 was $80-$105 per hour.

And then I asked him, "do you think you're going to get paid anywhere NEAR that kind of money flying that airplane here at Eagle?"

I think finally it dawned on him. I told him it's not good to wish things at the expense of mainline pilots (undercutting) and having regional airlines getting increasingly larger and larger airframes for no additional compensation. I told him, if you want to fly an A319 that badly -- apply to Spirit, or Virgin America (or whoever) in a few years.

So, no Eaglefly, not all of us are high-fiving each other at the thought of getting big planes here. The majority that do just don't know any better. Many here would like to see a one-list scenario with AA pilots where all flying for AMR is performed by a group on a single list (hence all the crazy rumors about 5 digit numbers and access to aapilots), but I remain skeptical that this will happen. It'd be a good thing, though, and it would make sense, since I don't believe AMR was ever too thrilled about having planes with the word AMERICAN painted on the side being flown by an entity out of their direct control.