This place has nowhere to go but up, and it will. Every airline has had its turn at the bottom. Some great and insightful posts on this thread, but the overall consensus is - stay put. Every airline, yes even Delta, has its share of Debbie Downers that talk about "leaving this dump." Nobody ever does - well, maybe a couple out of 15,000, and that only when there are some dang good and personal reasons to do so. Like what was said above, seniority is EVERYTHING, and to leave just because things are better elsewhere is pretty foolish...this industry is cyclical.

American is a lot of things good and not so good, but in the end this is still a legacy career job and a dang good one at that. We're just doing our tour of duty at the bottom that every other airline pilot has done. Hang in there and get involved to help expedite the necessary changes...and good changes will come...be patient.

Perspective... I spent two years as the rock bottom plug "native" AA pilot commuting from DFW to NYC bottom MD80 reserve - number last out of 10,000 pilots. Missed the entire 9/11 furlough (2900 pilots) by ONE NUMBER. believe me, I've had many, many days where I seriously considered jumping ship. So glad I never did, and in the end I was blessed to remain on the property while thousands of my fellow pilots got laid off - I should have been one of them. That was the 2005-2007 time frame. Today, 10 years later I am upgrading to CA...it took 17 years total from new hire (I was a 2/00 hire) - and in the next 20 years I gain 9000 seniority #s. It's gonna go that fast.

Stay put, get involved, and Make American Great Again