Nov 15 1998 I landed in SAN and the agents said AA bought us. The last 6 months they had fired the CEO Redding and an Ex UAL VP O'Gorman ? I think was his name took over as CEO.
There were alot of changes and things were running smoother.
It's been too long, I don't remember any "organic or stand alone" talk. In fact, I think we all knew or thought the "for sale" sign was up.
In no way would I ever compare us with Jet Blue as we were small 320 pilots.
I was a senior FO at QQ (Reno Air) and would have been in the next class of CA's though it was not scheduled.

I freely admit I won the lottery! And i've had a great time at AA. But, do I struggle with the ways things are done at AA? Every day!
Even after the merger/acquisition we had one pilot go to United and another go to Northwest. They were more interested in domiciles.

I had a great time at QQ and many of my stories are not fit for this forum!