A little optimistic... The problem is made worse by the fact that eagle is so short staffed right now that they are "metering" the number of flows going to AA. There are some complicated ratios that I do not even know, but as they work their way through the 3 (now 4) groups, there is supposed to be a range of eagle pilots in each AA class. Basically, Eagle is going to force AA to take the contractually legal minimum each class. This means movement will be even slower but more slots at AA will be taken up by non-Eagle pilots. For instance, lets say over the next few years, AA wants to hire 1000 pilots. Under certain circumstances, that could be as many of 500 Eagle pilots in that group. 500 people leaving from Eagle would be HUGE. However, if metered, it could be as few as 100 or 200. That means less movement and more non-Eagle people above you so once you DO go over to AA, you will be at a lower seniority than you could have been.

I'm in the 3rd group - the preferential hires (Hired before Oct 11 11). Basically once they get to your number, you just jump over to AA. No interview or drug test. I do not expect to ever use that "benefit" - not that I don't want to go to AA, I just will get better chances applying to other legacies (or directly to AA) than waiting for my number to get called.