I don’t see United EVER having a flow. Not unless the pilot shortage AT THE MAJOR LEVEL becomes absolutely desperate.

Right now they want what they want, the ability to decide AT THEIR LEVEL what the best pilots they can hire are. I don’t necessarily agree with their criteria (I think the Hogan is largely bogus for instance) but that doesn’t matter, they want what THEY want.

What they DON’T want is to have to commit to someone before that last hiring point. They really can’t afford AT THE REGIONAL LEVEL, to screen out the guys/gals with no degrees, a number of training failures, a few too many DUIs or other legal history, or even guys/gals that don’t fill out the Hogan like they want it filled out, because the pilot shortage at the regional level doesn’t permit them to do that, but they really don’t want those people at the next level if they can possibly get people that DO fit the algorithm they have in their mind for THE UNITED AIRLINES PILOT, either by stacking the interviews with military fliers or skimming what they believe to be the cream off the top of someone else’s regional.

And they ESPECIALLY don’t want to get the reputation that “their” regionals are the go to places for folks with all of those deficiencies where they can just “hang out” long enough that that UNITED AIRLINES PILOT job will just fall into the lap of someone they don’t view as deserving.

And for now and the foreseeable future, they can avoid making those commitments right up until the last moment because there are enough of those people knocking on their recruiters door.

That doesn’t mean they aren’t going to be ready to award increased opportunities at selection for people from “their” regional, or even a few brownie points in the scoring, but strict seniority based flow? I’ll be amazed if we ever see it.