All three of AA's wholly owned regionals now have that bonus retention scheme mentioned earlier. I'm at one of them and am leaning more and more towards taking it. I have less than a decade to mandatory retirement and would like to be with AA prior to that (I want their retirement travel bennies for trips home to Oz). I can wait it out for my turn for the direct flow to AA and at the same time apply for direct entry - and collect up to US$150k either route.
We're hiring like gangbusters now and it seems barely holding way against those leaving.