That is not because of the evil company shills at the NMB or the state of the economy or the general nature of negotiations. That is because their pilot group has intentionally embraced those rates because they think the process of doing so will get them an SLI re-do one day. That is the only reason why they are where they are right now. Hopefully an AA merger will eliminate the power structure in charge of that losing playbook and the "DL parity", with or without the DL TA, will result in a massive shift in the current disparity.