Please complete summed it up pretty good. That being said we have signed many different LOAs with little or no pilot input by our former MEC, many of which minimally have benefit to the pilot group, and all of which seem to favor the company. The forced upgrade and voluntary base reassignment was real doozy and huge hit in QOL to many. But I do see this coming to an end as many pilots hired within the last 2 years are coming up on their 1000 hours. Quick upgrades will probably start to ease off as well.
In our favor, I will say the training is good if you put forth the effort, and we have no real backlogs that I am aware of. Piedmont on the the other hand seem to have guys sitting around for months to get a class date. Can't speak to Air whiskeys training times, but their pay and benefits are supposed to be good and they signed a new contract with United.
Not so good for us, our reserve times are climbing and as an FO that means minimal flying until you accrue some seniority(this can be base dependant ). Some of the guys I have flown with are having difficulty consolidating their initial 100 hours. Reserve rules flat out suck and the improvement the union was selling was BS. Many were looking for the elimination of hot reserve, more days off and the ability to move days around. None of this happened. The only thing that happened is they restructured the way assignments are handed out and is supposed to go fully automated buy June. Pay, other than the initial signing bonus, is just about the bottom of the pack. You can make more at other regionals.
This may be a little far reaching, but something to consider, AA carries a large amount of debt, and their profits are not as good as the other legacies. Couple that with an economy that is showing indications of slowing down... you get my point. A downturn in the economy can be far reaching in this industry, and I would want to be positioned with someone who will be able to weather an economic event. In my opinion, our pilot coffers are rather full for the equipment we have on property, and who knows if AA wouldn't abandon the WO model altogether it economy gets bad enough. This last bit is pure speculation on my part.
Good luck with your job search!