Originally Posted by gringo

At the most basic, technical level, yes you're correct. Anyone NOT a flow is "technically" OTS. However, that's not at all how the term is used or understood.

Nobody said military are guaranteed a job, but the indisputable fact remains that they DO get invited to interview far faster than a regular non-mil candidate, and they DO get preferential treatment during the entire process over a regular civilian.

Just read the "Who's Been Hired" thread. Orleans any of the countless Facebook groups. Countless mil pilots getting a shot at the majors with only a few thousand hours, while many more equally qualified, if not more so, regular civilian pilots get ignored. Thousands of hours of PIC, widebody, passenger ops, etc etc totally ignored while any F16 pilot with low 4 digit flight time gets an interview.

This gist of this thread is who's getting hired at what legacy and who's not in a "special preferences" group.

American has made it very difficult for non-Mil, non-flow pilots to get on board. Not impossible, but incredibly unlikely.

Delta, a little bit easier, but still very difficult to get that phone call.

But for guys like me, veteran (not a pilot) brought up through the civilian ranks working through various regionals, ACMI trash haulers, LCC's and ULCC's, the ONLY Legacy that's giving us "off the street" guys a fair shot seems to be United.