oldmako

You may get hired. If you do it will be after they have vacuumed up most everyone else. If you're young, a few hundred numbers on the seniority list can mean a million or more over a 30 year career. It can mean wide body Captain or Uber Guppy Captain. It can mean bottom feeder reserve (making 16%) or being on the street.
The sooner you get a number the better.

Another angle, should you lose that precious medical in your wallet, a decent degree can mean a second career or the grind of holding two lousy jobs while trying to put your gomer's through college while trying to hang on to your house.

Do all you can to get both. If things don't hit the fan, this career might be good to you. Its a crapshoot.

Half wing

Im not sure United is hiring anyone now. Hiring isn't loosening up exactly either. They went from saying they were hiring 1100 or so this year to 600. In two years from now there is no telling what the landscape will be. What will fuel cost in 2 years? How much less international will we be doing with NAI, ME3, international ULCC growth, etc. It seems to me there are some storm clouds growing on the horizon. As far as the degree, it is better to have one and not need it than need it and not have it. Also, currently it is almost impossible to get hired here without a degree. Not getting a degree based on "it might not be required in the future" leaves too much to chance. If you want to work here, get the degree. You won't regret it.

MasterOfPuppets

Honestly quit trying to take short cuts and do the work that is required. Would you fly through a thunderstorm because the airport is on the other side? Actually a better question is would you cross a picket line because you get to fly a big jet?

You may be the lucky 1% that gets hired without a degree give it a shot. But for gods sake and,all of ours, relax. There's always going to be airplanes they are not going anywhere. And, certainly stop giving advice to people. I can name a dozen very good friends of mine who have thousands of hours of CA time and other resume boosters and they have not been called. United is not even close to needing to relax their minimums and hiring standards.

Do what you want but be ready for disappointment

Shrek

Student1 - I would attack it this way......

When you have the MINIMUMS go ahead and set up an Airapps profile and publish it at United and every other major. Then update it once per month while you are getting your 4 year degree. If any of them hire you before you are finished with the degree you are golden. If they don't; at least you will be working towards being competitive in the future.

WantTheJob

Hey Bro,

Not trying to be mean but please understand the frustration that many of us on this forum experience when we repetitively express the importance of getting the the 4 year degree in anything. But yet after the overwhelming hiring stats that prove are point people still ask the same redundant and mind numbing question.

I am sure that there aren't people entering nursing school right now in the hopes that the medical industry will lower its educational standards in the future for becoming a doctor. I think it's very short sided to think that you or anyone for that matter has any clue as to what will happen to hiring standards in the future.

Again, don't sell your potential future opportunities short by take it what you think is the easier path now. In my experience it only ends up in regrets. Good luck and be smart about your future decisions.

Andy

Trying to get a job at a major without a 4 year degree is like trying to run a marathon barefoot. I suppose it can be done, but you're putting yourself at a huge competitive disadvantage to others who also want that job and have their 4 year degree.

I've heard of these mythical pilots who have been hired at a major without a 4 year degree but I've yet to meet one.

I jumpseat offline a lot and can tell you that there are TONS of highly qualified pilots with their apps in, waiting for a call. Not having a 4 year degree will make your app stand out, and not in a good way.

Dave Fitzgerald

I would caution even against this advice. As you probably know, this industry is cyclical. Even if you get hired, there is a very high probability that you will be furloughed at one or more points. Not if, but when. WHEN that happens, that 4-year degree may be the difference between divorce, and being able to keep the house while on furlough.

Get the 4-year degree.

galaxy flyer

A four-year degree has been a near baseline requirement since at the least the '60s when I was where you are at. Yes, people get hired without it, but why start out at a big disadvantage, as in less than 1% chance.

GF

rickair7777

I concur, less than 1% at mid/upper tier majors.

Better odds at ULCC, if that's what you want to do.

It was much more common in the past, so you'll find old skool peeps who pulled it off in the 70s and 80s. But that was then...today a BS is the new HS diploma.

galaxy flyer

rickair7777,

One factor that has skewed the data (and the reality ) has been the airlines' preference for military pilots who for decades were required to be officers with four-year degrees. This military requirement didn't change even during Vietnam. Airline recruiters became accustomed to 50%+ of hires having degrees.

Just as until ADA and age discrimination settlements, airline recruiters demanded new hires to be under 30-33 years and pass a rigorous company physical. AA was strict on 30.5 and no older until two-tier contract drove them to change. AA also had the most rigorous, or outlandish, physical process including an EEG and a horrible glucose tolerance test. I had a spinal fusion as a result of an ejection. The EAL Chief of Medicine (they had one, Dr. Millette, IIRC) told me no way would they hire with that surgery due to potential disability claim. Times change.

One thing that changing the age standard did was reduce the bow waves of retirements.

GF