I just want to throw out there, that today's Prom Queen is not necessarily tomorrow's Miss Universe. Our industry is very cyclical.

In the mid/late 1990s - UAL was the captain of the cheerleaders. TWA and AWA were popular too.

Around 1999 UAL still ran the roost, with DAL, AA, and USAir close behind.

After 9/11 when every pilot at USAir was a captain at one point in their career, folks left her in favor of SWA, JetBlue, and ATA. United, Delta, and AA dumped everyone... a decade long furlough. Sometimes they would get back with you for a little while, only to dump you again. Fickle little wench.

After being furloughed some people fell for that cute rebound chick in the library: Vanguard, Eastwind, Pro Air, National, Skybus... but her folks moved away by around 2010.

Now UAL, DAL, and AA are competing for homecoming queen again. She will always be beautiful but very high maintenance and quick to dismiss you if she sees a better deal come along (force majeur)

Nobody has a crystal ball and any prognostications with a time horizon of greater than 5 years in this business are foolhardy guesses made by pilots who aren't particularly good students of our industry.

I miss 1999 when we all just applied everywhere, went to the first major that called, and then argued on Flightinfo about whose was better even though none of us really made a "choice" in where we went.