Friend of mine is a 320 CA for Spirit. His wife is a FA for DAL and he applied to DAL recently for more stability (e.g., lack of merger talk like Spirit) and longevity. He didn’t get hired and was told he would’ve probably never have upgraded to CA since DAL has hired so many pilots recently. They also didn’t hire another senior CA at Spirit who applied with him.
After he was walked out he was told “Hey man, I can’t give you any feedback, but you're welcome to apply again in 90 days. However, the dynamic around here is rapidly changing and I’m not sure what it’s going to even look like by then.”
Maybe they saved him by not hiring him?