Originally Posted by
skyemiles2
The WOs have had a handful hired at AA outside of the flow this year, so that is not true.
As a non-military pilot, you have a far better chance of getting to AA from a WO than you do from SkyWest, as only 42 pilots hired OTS at AA this year (end of October stats) were civilian-trained. I’m not sure of the WO street hires’ backgrounds, so there may be some overlap between the WO street hires and those 42.
Even if flowing isn’t your plan, it’s not a bad back up plan.
The OPs point was being at a wholly owned, maybe, helps being hired as OTS at AA, before the flow. And that's simply not the case. AA is very reluctant to cannibalize its cheap pilot labor flying AA routes. So, as you said, only a handful get lucky, and from my experience, I've only known one CA get through the front door and that was because he checked all the boxes, military, glowing recommendations within AA, etc. Most everyone else is hoping for about 7-8 year wait, as long as AA is filling classes consistently during those years. In the meantime, you've got poor quality of life and multi- leg days for very little credit, and a management that......