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.
On what data are you basing the fact that you are more qualified than some "Hot Shot" low time F-16 Pilot. Delta would not be valuing those individuals unless their experience with those individuals had been productive. Obviously, you don't think the F-16 trained pilot is very good or makes a very good Delta pilot. Delta management disagrees which is the reason these low time F-16 pilots get quick interviews. IF you have a chip on your shoulder over this you might have a hard time getting hired by one of the F-16 preferred (Delta, Southwest) airlines. My experience has been Delta does an excellent job of finding pilots that fit Delta's culture and I have rarely flown with a Captain who was a d***. Just my $.02.