I doubt AA could get 100K applicants, let alone 10,000 that could do the job if the APFA decided to strike, they couldnt do it in 1993 when the job paid a lot more in real terms. You seem to forget that dishing out sodas and meals may be what you see them doing but unless you've been in an emergency or seen them train there's more to the job than that. Delta got 85000 applications, you say for only 575 and make it sound like thats a lot, well the number of openings doesnt really have anything to do with the number of applicants, they probably would have had the same whether it was 10 or 100,000 openings, but there were 15 million unemployed , so over 14 million who dont have a job would apparently rather remain unemployed than fill out an application to go work for Delta. That says a lot more than 85000 applications for 575 openings. My guess is that you never collected unemployemnt compensation either, well in most states you have to prove job search, meaning that you fill out applications with no intentions or aspirations on taking the job, you fill it out to show that you complied with the rules.