Originally Posted by
eaglefly
Agreed on a lot of this. One one hand, AE flows are vetted by AA more then any street hire as they have extensive info on their training performance, attitude, attendance and personality acquired over years or even decades vs. a street hire they have to judge with limited PRIA, FAA and a couple of hours of interaction. On the other hand, even if a specific flow is marginal in some or all those areas, they still get to swing the bat at AA and if their training is as least satisfactory, they make it to the line. Some flows simply wouldn't be selected street hire style though and that is the reality, but like you said, some pilots are good at playing the interview game and end up being less then desirable people to share a cockpit wiith, especially over time as the years roll by. The airline pilot business has always had a strong component of luck which can be good or not so good depending upon the person or more accurately, the personality.
this is also now true for the pdt flows (and the psa "pref interviews")
and to a previous post about why some people wouldn't just try ots instead of waiting for the flow (and in support of your point) , some people just don't interview well and are more than perfectly capable crewmembers. where some people could be very good schmoozers in an interview situation, but bad sticks and don't play well with others.