I was at AWAC eight years. Mainline is a completely different job. Never mind the 8 days of working long call reserve sitting at home while making $120k-$130k/yr, 16% 401k, the better hotels when you do work, the better equipment that generally doesn't even have a single MEL on it, drastically less work while you are on duty, etc. etc. Yeah, it's a horrible job, I kick myself for leaving AWAC every day I go to work
. I can think of a bunch of companies that are a lot worse to work for over AA/US. In fact most of them.
The people that downplay the job are those who are secretly envious.