USAir may turn into AA, and both USAir East and AA have a very old pilot group. Yes, USAir has been in turmoil since AWA bought USAir, but a lot of that might be cleared up in arbitration if the merger with AA happens. USAir has 3 groups currently, the USAir East whiners, the AWA guys, and then everyone hired after the merger. Those three will probably be merged with the NIC award, and then the APA will have an arbitrator mix the group afterwards. Since AA has a lot more widebodies and a larger INTL presence, I would think there could be some fences around some of the planes in a merge, but your wife probably wouldn't have to worry about that for 5-10 years anyway.
UAL and CAL have the same, lots of retirements coming up, which means movement. They also have issues with future seniority list integration, but they are ahead of the US/AA guys. Lot's of widebodies, but their future contract will say alot about their scope and if they can retain the 50 seat limit on RJs, even though UAL has lots of 76 seaters flying around now.
With good contracts, I think both of those could provide quick movement up the ladder with all of the retirements scheduled at all of those airlines (CAL, UAL, AA, US). I would throw in apps to both, take the first one that offers, and then tell your wife to hold on for the first couple of years, and then it could really be nice. We all have to get over these 9-11 concessionary contracts we were all thrown under in BK.... A good contract later could be a real boost.
Bye Bye---General Lee