Couple hours? To some means you commute day before, stay in crashpads, hours of sitting at the airport to get on flights, loss of ability to pick up last minute premiums, the headaches of constantly looking which flights to shoot for. I’d rather loose a day or 2 off and not commute than have to commute and have 2 extra days off which I’ll loose by commuting lol[/QUOTE]

To some, yes. To others not so much. For many commuters, the choice is commute to any airline they decide to work at (such as myself). If I’ve got options I’m going to pick based on many factors that AA just doesn’t rank that highly in.

Living in base is an intrinsic value that’s hard to quantify and is valued differently by each individual. I don’t see any legacy airline base that I would consider living in or moving my family to so it’s a moot point for me. All I’m saying is that living in base but having less days off and less flexibility isn’t really a great trade off. I’d rather have the days off I want than the trips I want.