I am at a loss to understand what the issue is. If you work at Delta, you wear a hat when required. You work at Jet Blue you do not. Those are the rules the employer and the union has agreed on. If you don’t want to wear a hat, then don’t work at Delta. If the airline requires a degree? If you don’t have a degree then don’t apply, or take the opening that has been offered and go to a WO. Seems pretty simple to me.

BTW, I am in the freight business. Folk lore reads that Air Cargo is a very good indicator regarding near future passenger Airline business. As of the last couple of months, business is down sharply. I am flying a Chinese contract trip tomorrow. Empty from ORD to YQX and empty to ANC with another crew, then flying, empty to China. A year ago, normal was 200-250k payload and sometimes leaving freight on the ramp due to having additional fuel for contingencies. Hopefully, folk lore is wrong this time, or the US is exempt. The rest of the world is slowing down economically at this time.

 

This is the first time I have ever heard of anyone say, that a degree make's good pilots.
You can't degree a good pilot, flying is a skill, that require's continues adjustments and improvements, each individual needs to put forward a good effort to improve their skills. Not every one is a Chuck Yeager, oh and just so you know, Chuck didn't have a degree, and I doubt Delta pilots are better pilots.

 

Chuck Yeager enlisted as a private with a high school diploma. He eventually became a Brigadier General. Not many in the military has ever done that. I’d say he was an outlier, on the good side.

 

And how many of those outliers we have flying without degrees? Guys and gals that are spot on in their flying. I know many.

 

To your point, and i support it...thousands. We fought a World War and Vietnam with pilots that did not have a degree. The Army could not have waged war if not for Warrant Officers flying helicopters (my Father). Not apples to Apples though in many cases, i admit.

That said, the reason I can understand there being a college degree requirement though, is the employer doesn't know you any better than you know them. All we get about them is what's online and from other employees (maybe). All they know about us is an application and a resume, maybe a personal recommendation. The college degree is just something that they can easily point to that show's a candidate has done something to separate themselves, and that they at least at one time were able to consume large volumes of information and retain it. In a sea of faceless resumes, that one data point gives them a little more comfort that the candidate can handle the academics of training. Just my opinion.

 

Many have done that, General Mattis for example.

But those were generations past where college was not as readily available to the masses. Today anyone with work ethic can get into and fund college, so that raises the question of why would you pursue a white-collar career (of any sort) where college is the normal price of admission, and expect to take a short cut? Tuition a little expensive for your taste? Do what many including me and the fore-mentioned generals did and enlist... GI Bill is pretty generous.

Not debating whether a non-college grad can fly a plane, just asking why deliberately take the hard road when you know the right answer? If you're much over 50, you grew up in a different world so this doesn't apply to you.

 

Just a slight correction. General Mattis got his college degree from Central Washington University before he went into the Marines as an officer.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Mattis

 

Every officer has a degree

 

I remember talking to a friend of mine who is a dentist. He said he absolutely hated his physiology class in college - totally loathed it. However, he really wanted to be a dentist. The comment I remember from him was that he wasn't going to let that class stand in the way of what he wanted to do.

Getting the degree for a good flying job isn't any different in my opinion. Does a degree make someone a good pilot? No. But it's a hoop to jump through for a goal. If I didn't have a degree I'd be grabbing one as cheap and fast as I could in a subject I'm reasonably interested in. Check that box and move on to other issues in your career pursuits...

 

Not a correction, I didn't say otherwise. Of course he did, but he started as enlisted and subsequently went to college. Quite common back in the day, and still an option today.

Almost every commissioned officer has a degree today (exception for special programs, ie LDO/ECP), and for absolute certainty any general or flag officer has several. Education (early and often) is a fundamental tenant of our professional officer corps.