Pros
The positives of working for the airline historically has been the work schedule flexibility and travel benefits. Another area the airline has excelled is in diversity. They have a broad inclusive non-discrimination policy.
Cons
The quality of work life, i.e. schedule flexibility and the travel benefits - the reason most of us went to work for the airlines to begin with are rapidly disappearing. The company has reneged on it's promises to employees repeatedly. In Bankruptcy reorganization - the Company tried to "terminate" pensions and hand them over to the PBGC. Fortunately the Obama Administration said NO - and American was forced to "freeze" pensions instead. In any case - Pensions are a thing of the past. The small 3% 401k match doesn't come close to making up for it. Many employees made working for the airline a career - thinking that they would continue to receive lifetime travel passes that they could use in retirement. American also recently reneged on this commitment to employees by downgrading retiree travel considerably - making it almost impossible to get on a flight during retirement with virtually every flight being oversold every day of the year. In addition to all this, as if it wasn't enough, the pay is atrocious. Your pay will NOT keep pace with the rate of inflation, let alone exceed it. Plan on a continually declining standard of living in terms of real purchasing power the longer you work here. In Summation: Do NOT make American Airlines a career. The price you pay for working here is too high and the benefits do not exceed the grueling work and bad pay.