American Airlines Group Inc (AAL)

[pennyforurthoughts]

Let me make an observation and I apologize in advance as I am intimately involved in what is going on at AMR. As an AMR shareholder and first officer/pilot with the company........you get what you pay for! I brought my 25 years of military flying experience to AMR in what I thought was my dream job as a professional pilot. In 2003, I took a 23% pay cut off a 1997 contract to KEEP this company out of bankruptcy. My medical insurance costs have skyrocketed and my hard earned pension is now in shambles. That 23% pay cut didn't matter. I will now be forced to take another 10-30% pay cut on top of that and will effectively be making less than the janitor at my son's private school. I'm potentially down over 50% of my 1997 income if the 30% scenario were to play out. There is no advancement and I will now commute to my pilot base from my home to be on call/reserve 19 days a month hard time away from my family.

What is my experience worth to any of you in the cockpit when YOU fly? Do you want me, or do you want a pilot with 500 hours just out of college with not a lick of air sense about him/her?

The tragedy is my skill sets have become so diminished in value in the eyes of the company and passengers that I can no longer sustain a career at this airline and will retire early in two years with little to nothing to show for it. I'm literally better off driving a bus than driving an airplane!

You will truly get what you pay for!