I don’t think “having the desire to fly long haul international” is the ONLY reason to choose AA over SWA. I was at a narrowbody only major headquartered in NYC before jumping ship to AA this year. One of the things that struck me after someone pointed it out is that having a large widebody fleet effectively boosts your narrowbody seniority under the assumption that our A330/777/787 positions will remain senior and continue to be more attractive positions than our 737/320 postions.

What I’m trying to say is I think it would have taken me ~30 years to crack top 10% of A320 Captains at My last airline versus probably being in the top 10% of 320 or 737 captains at AA in half that time because of massive retirements and the effect of having widebodies on property. We have Over 3,000 pilots (CA and FO) flying the 330/787/777 who could all hold 737 Captain but choose otherwise. Therefore allowing those 3000+ positions to go to more junior folks.

Even if you have no desire to fly long haul or widebodies and only want to fly Day turns down to the islands as a senior Captain or FO on a 320/737, I think that will happen a lot quicker at AA. The movement on the 737/320 at AA should be pretty amazing due to the massive retirement wave and plenty of people senior to you eventually bidding out of the left seat of the 737/320 and into the right or left seat of the 330/777/787.