Nope. AA benefits to the extent they can START OLDER GUYS AT MAINLINE.

Seriously, did you think retired USAF O-6s were being hired at AA because they had UPT 23 years ago back in the twentieth century and then flew A-10s for ten years before finishing out their USAF career flying a desk? That their single seat bombing and strafing experience was all that valuable for flying pax? It isn’t.

Those guys get hired because they are 46 years old and reasonable training risks who are only going to work their way up to top pay for the last 7 years of their career. Also because they have no history of association with unions, already have a pension so they aren’t going to be pushing as hard for pay raises, and have Tricare benefits that decrease their insurance needs (and costs). They can do the job and they cost less. They are a butt in the seat.

Hiring a 26 year old means they are going to be paying that guy top rate for 28 years. Now granted, they are going to have to hire TWO of the old f@rts to get the same number of pilot years, which means the two old guys will still be on the top rate (combined) for 14 years, but they’ll also BOTH be working their way up that scale for 24 years and they’ll be saving money (compared to hiring one young guy and keeping him to his retirement) for 14 of those years.

If management could, they’d only have two scales, FO and Captain, because all they really care about is butts in the seat and anyone qualified by law to be there is - in management’s mind -interchangeable with anyone else that could legally hold that position. A 60 year old Captain with 5 years experience and a 55 year old newbie FO would be fine with them. They do not benefit - not to any great extent - by having someone flying at a major for 40 years most of that at top rate.

But the 12 year sliding payscale is engrained in both precedent and contract, so the only way they can manipulate it is to hire people who will spend the greatest part of their career on the lower rungs of the payscale ladder.

They learned their lesson with the mandatory retirement age change, when they found that allowing pilots to work to 65 forced them to retain their most expensive and least productive employees, the ones with the highest wages and most accrued benefits,

It would be different perhaps if there were any dearth of qualified applicants at the major level, but there isn’t - certainly not yet. Or if only young applicants were available, but with military retirements that’s not happening yet. But if they can get the average seniority level down they can really save money and keeping someone flying for them as a regional captain for an extra one or two years before they restart his seniority will save them some serious coin. Multiply that by several thousand people in the upcoming hiring wave and it’s even more.

If you don’t get it, go talk to an actuary and get them to explain it. The math is sound, and AAs financial people know it.