A former United Captain once told me that you are only hurting yourself if you don't put multiple applications out there. Forget the flows, once you have the minimums and a year of 121 experience start firing out applications to every airline you would want to work for. That way your application has started its way to the top.

If it takes a major 2 years to get back to you then so what. At least that's 2 more years of experience that you can put on your application and resume.