You really think it's such a young man's game? I would think if you had your debts under control, all your flight tickets, college, and maybe 1,500 hours total time you could shoot for a heavy jet goal at up to maybe 50 years old but I am not sure. I would not do it. The bigger question in my mind is at 50 would I be able to accept crappy right seats at low paying airlines, put up with moving every 3 years, and be so enamored of a heavy jet that I would do all this on a shoestring budget and no hope of retirement. Given all that, perhaps the reasonable cutoff age is mid-thirties at this point in time. If I had a 20-year-old son I would tell him no way should you go into airline work, unless other options are simply off the table.