You assume the flow will remain in its present form without a interview. You also assume American will be here in 10 years in its present form. Both are awful big assumptions to bet not getting a degree on.

No.

Do you have a degree?

You need to get a college degree. Do not listen to people on this board who say otherwise. They don’t talk to the recruiters who are in charge of hiring. You can obtain your ratings now and finish your college degree online. Many universities will give you a large amount of credit for your flight training.

I do, BS in psychology.

Then you're not qualified to discuss a career without a degree, and the last person from whom one should receive counsel about forging a career without a degree.

Ah, that explains it. You are cleverly using reverse psychology to advocate getting a degree. :D

The only problem with that advice is he HAS to wait for his flow date and the history of the last 50+ years says he won’t be competitive for any other major airline. What if AA isn’t a good choice for him in ten years? His eggs are all in one basket.

Someone posted a stat that UA had hired 3 non degree guys in the previous 1800. 1:600. I’d laugh at anyone who thinks they’re in the top 0.17% so they don’t need a college degree. For a pilot at the Big 3 that means they’d be in the top 25 applicants on their seniority list.

That’s laughable if someone thinks they’re a top 0.17% candidate. People thinking that don’t deserve to be hired based on their hubris alone.

True. But then again - the retirement numbers suggest flows will increase, not decrease, in the future.
Mainline needs fresh bodies, a flow is the cheapest and easiest way to get them.

Their problem is not getting bodies to mainline cheaply and easily :rolleyes:

Their problem is getting bodies period to the commuters, and keeping them for a while. Promise them a mainline job later if the fly the RJ's now... works every time.

You're correct that if there was ever a time to roll the dice on no degree, this is it. But there's still some risk.

There is always risk involved with any big decision you make. Delta alone will hire 8000 pilots in the next 10 years and UA AA showing similar numbers. American already doesn’t care about the degree as long as you fly RJs for them for 5-6 years. SWA said no 737 type needed and people are getting on without 1000 TPIC. Next they’re gonna soften the degree req. You all think the 25,000 pilots needed are all going to be super humans with perfect records and college degrees? Obviousiy they can’t say you don’t need an ATP. Like you say it’s the best time to gamble to not get a degree. I didn’t mean to say that getting a degree is a waste of time in my original post. I didn’t mean it in a nagative way. The 4 years I spent at college were amazing I would recommend getting a degree to anyone. Just in this particular case of this OP I wanted to let him know that there most likely will be a way into the majors without one in the near future. And if you do get a degree make it in something unrelated to aviation from a good school just so you have a good back up plan in case you lose your medical. I don’t think you should buy a degree at some online university just to tick a box.