I too know several major airline pilots without four year degrees - in fact four out of five of the major airline pilots I know got hired without four year degrees (the one who did was an USAFA grad). All have at least some college. All have previous successful job experience. All had a recommendation.

A study was done on this a few years ago (I'll look for it). Essentially it said the percentage of hiring of pilots without a four year degree equaled the percentage of pilots without a degree in the hiring pool...meaning about 6 percent of pilots looking to be hired at majors don't have a four year degree...which has resulted in 6 percent of pilots hired at majors not having a four year degree (or something to the effect of those percentages). The reason we've kept up this old-wife's tale is because 90 plus percent of pilots looking to be hired by a major do have a four-year degree, so everyone says that's necessary. So by default most pilots have a degree or go get a degree. Kind of self full-filling.

What does not happen to a great extent is someone getting interviewed at a major without a recommendation. The two largest factors to getting interviewed at a major (assuming the major is hiring) are:

1. Meeting all of their minimum qualifications.
2. Having recommendations/sponsor to speak for you.

Sure there are outlyers, the odd story, the "son-of-the-chief-pilot's-best-friend", etc. But everyone I know that has been hired has had a internal sponsor and they were near the mean average of hiring times at the major (for example the mean hours a SWA new hire has is 1800 hours part 121 turbine PIC)

I question how much major airlines really care about a four-year degree, unless you are young and don't have much else. And regionals, they're struggling to find commercial pilots with 500 hours now. At the moment regionals could care less.

One more thought. If a major airline was interviewing ten candidates, five with a four-year degree and five without and the five with the degree wanted starting salaries of maybe $50/hour and the five without were willing to be hired at a starting salary of say $30/hour, and all else about the candidates was roughly equal, who do you think the airline would hire?

I thought so.