Gillegan - excellent points. Guys chase airlines as if they're picking stocks from yesterday's headlines. It will be interesting to see what airlines lose pilots, and to which airline they go, when the retirement bubble bursts.
Some stagnated FO's tell guys to avoid their airline like the plague. The guys that get hired behind that stagnation point have the potential for fairly rapid advancement and will be senior for a long time if the airline survives. Bow wave theory always gets the freshest sand. Making that judgement call will be key once retirements start.
While your original airline was a great place 25 yrs ago it's route structure, from a long term perspective, was poor. The analysts back then talked about it's long term weaknesses. To some degree they still exist today.