Most of the contracts at the time had "furlough pay" which amounted to about 60 days or a bit more pay. The airlines all generally also gave notice that something like 1500 would be furloughed, just not exactly when as the airlines were trying to quickly wind down 727 operations and move personnel around, they needed some qualified labor to keep the operation going so it wasn't like all 1500 went on day 1.

AA furloughed like everyone else, they just took it up a notch by not letting the pilots know until they returned from a trip and confiscated their ID. If you lived in base, no harm, no foul. If you didn't, well that was the start of the AA furlough harassment package.

Like I said in the other post, AA has come a long way in pilot / mgmt relations from my outside point of view over the last 25 years.

Definitely a tough choice. When I was at one of those regionals that flew for multiple carriers, we all despised flying UX flights because it was just a micky-mouse operation. We all joked how we wouldn't want to fly for United. This was 2012-2013 timeframe when Smisek was in. Years later, I really noticed a change in the hard product, and I eventually got an interview there but was turned down. Point is that airlines will ebb and flow. I'm at your company now too, and driving to work has been great as I was born and raised in DFW. But I can't help but wonder if I had gotten UA and would be on a WB or a NB captain by now, but commuting. I probably would have made my wife move to ORD, or the northeast though.

Is it possible to move military units? AA has 3 bases driving distance from 3 C-17 units. Stewart, Charlotte, and McGuire.

Yes. You just apply to the unit you'd like to move to. Get hired, outprocess, inprocess, doneski. As long as they're hiring...but that's everyone from what I can tell. Big Blue has many holes to fill as people are tripping over each other heading for the door.

how do you figure 777 fo at AA with your seniority? Then throw in LH. Been here 5yrs and could hold 777 fo, barely

go to UAL. No brainer. Or delta

How many years to hold a line on the 777 as an FO?

IMO the music is about to stop and hopefully when it does your sitting in a chair... Im hesitant to leave my regional let alone leave one major for another. Been furloughed once so that might jade my view but every economist is talking about a deep recession in 2023/24, huge consumer debt and rising interest rates... Today I was reading about short term/long term bond rate inversion and how it's predicted every major recession for the past 50 years and guess what's happening now. I'm not leaving the regional for atleast 6 months because of this. I'd rather be in the top 50% of seniority when the recession hits

Cool story bro. Won’t be any furloughs at those overpriced regionals, flying 50 seaters, when gas hits all time highs. See what happens when they can’t fill those seats.

There’s a lot of retirements. Hopefully that would insulate from furloughs. You’d be a fool to stay at a regional fearing a recession.

Honest question. What will you do six months from now if there’s no significant change in the economy? Because I can assure you that the same voices who are predicting a crippling recession will still be doing just that six months from now. And the voices that are telling us everything is just fine will continue their narrative as well. So what’s your move, tack on another six months? In a game where seniority is everything, is that a good plan?

It is wise to consider all the factors involved in a huge life altering decision like this, but you can not allow yourself to become paralyzed with fear. At some point you have to make the leap.

Also, and this is only my opinion, even if there’s a recession (which I tend to agree there is one coming) there won’t be furloughs at the legacies. Simply because at AA alone pilots will continue to drop off the seniority list to the tune of 800+ per year due to retirements. I believe that would be enough to avoid furloughs even in a pretty deep recession.

Now if they change the retirement age again then all bets are off.