Originally Posted by
Steverin06
Thank y'all for the advice.
Is is true that if I separate and stay in a regional for over a year waiting for a call from the majors, that I am out of being designated under the "military" pool? I have a buddy who was an intern at AA hiring in 2007 and he said that would happen, further lowering my chances. He also said they blacklisted folks for doing "touch and go's" at regionals, but that it was a very different hiring climate back then. Seems to be more (or completely) acceptable now.
That is 100% not the case today, opposite in fact. There was an era where they expected you to get hired at a major right out of the mil prior to age 30, or not at all... but that's ancient history.
I know mil pilots (fighter pilots in fact) who got out during the rough times 10-15 years back who got non-flying jobs, but have since come back and gotten hired by majors (they had to do 6-18 months at regionals). Also helo guys (Navy, so FW UPT and typically UPT instructor time as well). Bottom line they really like mil in almost permutations, worst case is probably mil helo who did not do a FW UPT.
Checking 121 and civilian type boxes will do wonders for your app scoring if your mil time is a little low.
AA used to have some bizarre hiring practices too, so I wouldn't take that as industry representative either. But the old AA is no more, it's mostly America West Airlines DBA AA... they should have just kept the Cactus callsign.