You apparently haven't spoken to any Eagle pilots as I have. the vast majority would take a staple! Obviously every FO would take a staple as that is a no brainer. The Eagle CA's with AA numbers, especially the 244 affected by Nics ruling would require placement somewhat higher on the list than a staple would provide. And as far as the Eagle CA's that chose Eagle Rights, meaning they did not take an AA number upon upgrading to the jet prior to AA furloughing in 2001 could just be seat locked in anything with 70 seats or less for the remainder of their careers at the new Eagle/AA. After all, by choosing Eagle Rights, they had no reasonable expectation of going to AA anyway. They should have nothing to say about it.
The only other thing would be to protect the current Eagle FO's from being furlough fodder by seat locking them where they are until all AA furloughs are back and AA begins hiring again, of course they would have to hire to the ATR or RJ. That is probably the sticking point with the AA guys. How horrible it would be to actually require an AA new hire to have to start out on the RJ.
Haven't spoken to AE pilots? I AM an an AE captain.
Your comment about how "HORRIBLE" it would be to have an AA new hire in an RJ.....Why not????? Back in 2002, APA and ALPA were trying to merge the lists, APA wanted newbies straight into mainline. Meaning newbies would bypass all AA(AE) pilots already on the list.
So, I ask you....do you think it would be fair for a newbie to go to mainline instead of starting at the bottom ,just like everyone else????