Well, for most people the answers seems to be "I'm going to flow in 1-12 years anyway, and the 175 is easy to fly sooooo...."

Just like those bitter old Lifers.

My hope is if I came to Envoy I would get hired at a major way before my flow time came up and hopefully inside of 2 years so I may be looking at bonus repayment.

Or you could reject the bonus so you owe nothing.

Which would be a silly thing to do. If it does indeed take longer than 2 years, you'd have forfeited a lot of money. Better to take the bonus, put it away and repay if necessary.

Also, if one is here for more than a year but less than 2, you don't have to pay back the full amount.

You could take the money and out it into savings or a money market account that earns interest. That way if you leave you could pay the money back and only be out the taxes. Moving on to a major in two years could be tough to do, unless you already have experience.

Yeah I all ready have a fair amount of experience just not enough for the majors yet.

So if you leave before 12 months you owe it all back. If you leave between 13-24 months then you pay a prorated amount.

How are there lifers at Envoy? Refusing the flow? Discipline holding them back?

The vast majority of lifers are fantastic to fly with, and their choice to stay has nothing to do with discipline. Picture being in an era where you had to deal with 9/11, the age 65 increase, SARS, and the global economic downturn. Add all of that in with how AA's first-year pay was, a wife, kids, mortgage, and these guys couldn't afford to go to AA. The lifers are making decent coin at Envoy, and for many of them, the pay cut, going back to reserve, and commuting to another base for an extended period wasn't worth it for them.