I've run into a couple guys that have come back from over there.

The guys I remember had come back to United, Spirit, Allegiant, and sigh Mesa. I didn't get the chance to pick all their brains (the most recent was over a year ago). But I call BS. One legit problem I could see though would be getting the time off to come back to do a job fair or interview. I hear it's pretty tough to take more than a couple days off in a row. Maybe the guy you are talking about has some other issue he didn't want to share? Like a DUI or a couple of checkride busts. Or maybe he just doesn't have any internal recs and hasn't been able to get to a job fair?

GoJet and Mesa are a whole 'nother topic for the regional thread.