Airline staffing is subject to inertia.
Remember how DECs bonus took a few months to start seeing current numbers in classes? And even at that, I believe that the company would want to see 50% more DECs each class.
Same with the FO classes, it will take a few months of major competition offering higher pay for people to stop coming here. Yes, flow is a marketing tool that works to an extent, but pay and QoL are important.
Talking about pay now is cheaper in the long run than scrambling when the classes start going unfilled. Lose the "there's no incentive" mindset. There is. Would it be higher should ual/dal announce flow? Definitely.
But waiting to see if the flow alone keeps the airline staffed is a gamble. I doubt it AAG would rely on gambling.
I believe that with the reserve times where they are in some of the bases/equipment, we are likely to see 12 day min off and other improvements before the pay goes up, but it will go up regardless.