AMR's culture unfortunately has been that it is a "Captain's" airline, and FO's are gear-up flunkies with no skills. IOW, you've got to be a CA to have real credibility.

This is just my impression as a 22 year FO. Another clue is the "Upgrade or out" rule which is fortunately starting to die a well-deserved death. Over the years, we'd have widebody FO's absolutely happy where they are, FORCED to upgrade to CA in a Fokker or S-80, and then end up as a junior reserve NB CA for a period of time. Often, they immediately re-bid back to their WB FO job after their lock-in expires. Two massive training cycles, ****ed-off pilots, big $$ wasted.

Another chuckle-worthy rule is the WX conditions (or airport specific) mandating "the CA must make the landing, no exceptions", and you've got a new CA with 100 hours in type being forced to take a landing from an FO with 7,000 hours and who has been to that airport hundreds of times.