While there was the occasional FO hired for the most part the last few years you needed a lot of PIC hours to get hired at Delta or United. By the time you reached that many Captain hours here you were close enough to flow that you stopped trying so hard for the other big two, especially since AA is in a slightly earlier stage of their hiring wave than the others. This has been my experience along with others around my seniority. Obviously some have been hired, but a lot of us didn't become really competitive until we were closer to flowing and then gave up. Of course this trend will probably change.