Mid 30's joining biz
 

I am 36y now reaching my 1500hrs in the next few months. I am not a boy who will ask, where should I start for having little reserve, good schedule, high pay and QOL... you can't have it all !
So, what are the odds of going to a Major (Delta, United, AA, Fedex or UPS) through a Skywest or RPA indeed of selling your soul to any smaller Regional offering a Flow or an Interview in the future. Which path should I look for?
Remember I am not 20 so I will be at least 40 when able to apply for the Majors.
Any more thoughts to consider, such as reserve time, upgrade, please add in the suggestion.

A lot depends on if you're tied to a location or not and family life

Flow offers a guarantee, in exchange for low pay and a long wait.

If you're very risk averse, go for flow.

If you have black marks, probably should do flow.

You can still apply OTS to other majors (and I think AA too) while you wait to flow.

If you're a go-getter, have great people skills, technical degree, or other resume items which make you stand out from the crowd you probably don't need flow, although there's always at least some risk of acquiring a black mark in training or on the line.

I live in South Florida, and there aren't many options here for Regionals. Only a small and senior base of Envoy in MIA, same for RPA and Silver in FLL.
So I guess it will be very hard to scape from commuting in the beginning. And in 5 years from now I can move with my family to anywhere and live at base.

“Flow” essentially means American.

It’s a gamble but given the retirements coming soon, being an American WO pilot has a small but significant chance of really good surprises

The surprise will be how much effort American will exert to delay flow because they are making money on you right there in the regional and they can OTS hire all the good candidates they want who will not require them to replace one of their senior regional guys/gals.

The pilot shortage will hurt the regionals LONG before it ever hurts the majors.

You clearly don't know how the flow works.

Maybe so. Not the question at hand.

American is real close to massive massive massive retirements. They may need to increase flow. May not ... but it’s silly to dismiss the chance.”

They just increased the flow for a small group of Envoy guys.

No. The flow is NOT a guarantee. It can go away at any time. And in the past it has even flowed backwards.