Well, the gripes are against Envoy in general, but the flow gets special attention because it causes a lot of other problems. It is the primary sales pitch for recruiting, which keeps the Voy staffed regardless of its other shortcomings. It should be a backup plan, but the reality of things is that life at Envoy practically makes people locked into flow. Envoy is one of the slowest career builders in terms of building hours, upgrading, getting other boxes checked (LCA, CP, etc), then moving on to some major. Despite THKool-Aid's assurances that Envoy cadets are the best of the best, Envoy pilots are not hired at other majors at any higher rate than our regional counterparts. This causes a Catch-22 in that short flow times require high attrition as I spelled out above, but high attrition is not a reality at Envoy.

My primary reason for posting is to highlight realities of the flow for lurking cadets, and maybe wake up some of the current pilots at Envoy to stand strong for pay and QOL improvements. Unlike most other regional pilots, we are owned and managed by our mainline, but treated like second-class (or worse) citizens by them. Some new hire or cadet who drinks the Kool-Aid that they are "Already American" needs to face the reality that when they get on the AA seniority list, they will be behind over 6,000 pilots who are not "Already American" today.

The other popular misconception that needs highlighted is people coming here thinking that it improves their chances at getting hired by AA through the traditional hiring process. The non-flow hires are minimal, but that information surprises most of the people at the 'Voy.