Originally Posted by
Xtreme87
Maybe JB is just trying to get ahead of the game when all hell breaks loose and there are no qualified pilots besides the few that are going to the big 3. Seems like a hedge for the future.
This. With all the retirements at the majors over the next 10 years, there will be a shortage of qualified pilots even to get to the majors. I would hazard a guess and say JetBlue realizes this and is taking steps to mitigate it. Will it work? Who knows? It personally seems to me like this is a step to entice people to look into the career who might not have otherwise looked into it. Ask yourselves, when you had 0 time, wouldn't it be nice to know that you have a career progression path instead of paying out hundreds of thousands on the chance that you won't get stuck at a regional for 9 years as a first officer making $45K? It seems like everyone is upset because of the "I had to go through it, so should everyone else" mentality. These G7ers still have to get all the ratings and get some experience at the regionals before coming on full time.
For all the guys posting their qualifications and times: do you really think there is someone who is going over EVERY application, looks at yours specifically, and denies it? Come on, man, don't be so narcissistic. It's not a slap in the face that you have all this experience and they rejected you - it's more likely a function of LUCK. Nobody really knows how one application gets picked over another, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's a program that takes every 25th, 50th, 100th, etc. and then has a human check credentials, then that person gets a call for an interview.
And before I get flamed, no, I am not management, I was not involved in the development of the program. I'm just an independent thinker who can see through the groupthink mentality to arrive at my own conclusions.