I think for a lot of people the logic behind picking envoy is pretty simple. If you want to work for AA and you live near ORD or DFW then envoy is still your best choice. If you’re any further east and you want to be at AA then go PSA.

AA does not currently (and won’t in the future) hire many pilots outside of their WO flows and the military. I also think that United will shift to a similar hiring policy by treating C5 and XJT like their “wholly owned” feed. Delta has endeavor but still seems to be doing a lot of hiring OTS from other regionals which is a good thing.

My point is that it seems like someone who is just entering this industry may feel like they need to “pledge allegiance” to one legacy carrier by putting in their time at a wholly owned and/or their preferred regional carrier.