Go in with your eyes open. There's going to be a lot of stagnation from the senior pilots who won't flow to AA because of economics. A hundred pilots with current numbers may flow to AA at some point in the future, but the rest are too old to go to a major if they start hiring. This will put a lot of pressure on this carrier to be competitive in the future as they'll still have a longevity problem like what's happening at Pinnacle. Their management may be fooling themselves if they think they'll trim a steady number of pilots from the top, when in reality if the "824" provision survives, it would be junior captains and F/O's. Since this carrier is highly likely to shrink because of the above described financial pressure and the independent desire for whipsawing, one should be extremely cautious about developing any dependency on long-term rewarding employment.

Many who go here may not realize that until they are there and things begin shaking out, so this carrier will have an additional stress of high attrition from the bottom resulting in further uncompetitive cost disadvantages. I think even with the TA provisions, this carrier will have a serious time competing with "younger" carriers and could become a Comair or Pinnacle. If you need 121 time though and you get an offer, it may be as good a place as any to get 500-1000 hours of jet time and as long as you don't risk too long of a commitment and pass up a better gig, so that may work out for you.

My advice is to keep your expectations low and your eye to your next move before you make too much of a commitment. You don't want to be stuck in a dead end rut still and F/O at a dying regional 5 or 7 years from now. Learn from those who've made that mistake.