The furloughed guys definitely have a reason to be bitter. Their careers have not been close to what they expected. That said, things for new guys should be much different. If there's an event that happens that causes stagnation it will hit all of the carriers.

I think AA is a pretty good gig now and should turn out well. It's a bet. I'm betting on the retirements. For new guys it may be worth it to jump somewhere if you don't mind giving up a few percentage in retirement. But it's really a toss up.

To think management at other companies cares about their employees is just naive. There was a huge billboard in ATL that ALPA put out about how management treated their pilots badly. Newsflash: no management teams at mega companies really care about employees. We're a line item cost, that's it.

Bottom line is AA has a lot of retirements coming up. If you're already here it's probably worth staying. If you're job hunting I'd take the easiest commute or the airline that has a domicile where you live.