Parker isn't doing anything except for adopting AA's travel policies.
Besides, what's there to gain by playing "divide and conquer" with retirees??? Heartless as it will sound, it's not their airline anymore... Their airline is now a memory.
Most airlines I've worked with (which in consulting adds up pretty quickly...) put retirees at a lower travel priority than they do their active employees. And it makes perfect sense if you step back away from the issue a bit.
The reasoning behind AA's policy (and I'd know, since I managed it for about 3 years...) is that active employees typically have limited time off, and if they don't get back home for work, there are consequences for the company as well as the employee. Retirees are supposed to be retired, and presumably have more flexibility on when they have to be somewhere.
Maybe that's an outdated concept now (I know lots of technically retired people who still find it necessary to work for a living...), but the concept still stands: the folks who are still on payroll deserve priority. Especially if you work for one of those companies where retirees outnumber those on payroll, which I suspect is the case when you consider the combined AA/US/HP/TW retiree population...