Becoming an Airline Pilot without a College Degree

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I think it could be argued that American has itself in a bit of a bind with the flow, if their goal was to end it. In such an event they would see an exodus of their regional pilots and their regional feed would suffer immensely. And for most legacies the issue is training capacity as of right now. They can barely keep up. So if they were going to cover the flying at mainline it would take years to spool up. I don’t think the AA flows are going anywhere. If anything slows them or stops them it will be an outside event. Not AA’s doing. And if that happens the whole industry will come to a screeching halt.

If AA cancelled the flow why would there be a mass exodus from the wholly owneds? Sure, some would leave but I doubt a lot of people would want to go start over at some regional somewhere.
 
If AA cancelled the flow why would there be a mass exodus from the wholly owneds? Sure, some would leave but I doubt a lot of people would want to go start over at some regional somewhere.
It’s not like other regionals are the only airlines hiring. Many people came to the WOs for the flow. Take that away and what is stopping them from going to other regionals/LCCs with bases closer to home or better career progression? I think the conversation is a moot point. It doesn’t seem very likely.
 
It’s not like other regionals are the only airlines hiring. Many people came to the WOs for the flow. Take that away and what is stopping them from going to other regionals/LCCs with bases closer to home or better career progression? I think the conversation is a moot point. It doesn’t seem very likely.

Probably common sense. Nothing is going to wreck your image in front of a hiring board like a bunch of lateral moves.
 
How about four different regionals in a short period of time chasing fast upgrades?
Yeah not a lot of loyalty there. People really have to think about what/where they start depending on where they want to end up. I'm still 800 hours short but I do think about where I'd like to land. I'm assuming one should have a good answer for every choice they made chasing this career.
 
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I am currently working a full time job with a college degree and getting my PPL (Slowly) on the side. While i wish i was in the right seat of a regional right now, i wouldn't change a thing. Finish your four year degree and have fun in college while you still can. I was always told college was the best four years of your life and looking back i can definitely say that's true. Not to mention, god forbid something happen and you loose your medical you have something to fall back on.
 
While I’m not always 100% on board with the “you must have a degree or you won’t be successful” crowd. I will say that I wish that I took college a little more seriously after high school. I was very focused on something else that was infinitely important to me at that time, but in hindsight was a futile direction to be focusing my energy. Then I sort of fell into a job where I was making $60,000 /year at the age of 19. And at that time to a kid who never made more than $20,000 /year it felt like I hit the jackpot. So college hit the back-burner pretty quick.

And in hindsight I don’t wish I had finished college for any other reason than I would have felt more personally enriched from the experience. I would love to have a degree in a field I find myself genuinely interested in now as I’ve gotten older. But then again if I went the college route I probably never would have become a pilot. And there is a good chance I would have had a lot of debt and might not of even had a job that I earned as much as I do now. So there is no 100% correct answer. If you want to go to college for something that you are in love with then absolutely it’s worth the money. If you’re going to get a business degree (because you don’t know what else you should do or what really interests you) so you can get a job and you’re going to incur a lot of debt to do it, might want to think hard about it.

We’ve been paying for my wife’s school out of pocket. She’s going slow at it but she’ll be done next year. She waited to go to school and now she has found a field she is absolutely enamored with and we haven’t incurred much debt for her to pursue it. I think waiting is not a bad thing if you’re unsure about what you want to do. Once she finishes up I think I’ll revisit my degree. Not because I think it will help a whole lot in my career as a pilot, but because it’s something I want to do for me.
 
Don’t be lazy, get the degree.

Sometimes being an adult means doing things you don’t want to do because it’ll pay off in the end. In fact, I’d argue that is a vast majority of adulthood.

Is "having kids" in that category? :D

While I’m not always 100% on board with the “you must have a degree or you won’t be successful” crowd. I will say that I wish that I took college a little more seriously after high school. I was very focused on something else that was infinitely important to me at that time, but in hindsight was a futile direction to be focusing my energy. Then I sort of fell into a job where I was making $60,000 /year at the age of 19. And at that time to a kid who never made more than $20,000 /year it felt like I hit the jackpot. So college hit the back-burner pretty quick.

And in hindsight I don’t wish I had finished college for any other reason than I would have felt more personally enriched from the experience. I would love to have a degree in a field I find myself genuinely interested in now as I’ve gotten older. But then again if I went the college route I probably never would have become a pilot. And there is a good chance I would have had a lot of debt and might not of even had a job that I earned as much as I do now. So there is no 100% correct answer. If you want to go to college for something that you are in love with then absolutely it’s worth the money. If you’re going to get a business degree (because you don’t know what else you should do or what really interests you) so you can get a job and you’re going to incur a lot of debt to do it, might want to think hard about it.

We’ve been paying for my wife’s school out of pocket. She’s going slow at it but she’ll be done next year. She waited to go to school and now she has found a field she is absolutely enamored with and we haven’t incurred much debt for her to pursue it. I think waiting is not a bad thing if you’re unsure about what you want to do. Once she finishes up I think I’ll revisit my degree. Not because I think it will help a whole lot in my career as a pilot, but because it’s something I want to do for me.

Holy cow, what were you doing at 19 that paid you 60 grand? I tanked $140k into a 4-yr engineering degree that started with a 55k job at 22. To be honest, I only went to college solely for the reason that it was pretty much the expected thing to do, both in terms of family and societal expectations. For better or for worse...
 
Is "having kids" in that category? :D



Holy cow, what were you doing at 19 that paid you 60 grand? I tanked $140k into a 4-yr engineering degree that started with a 55k job at 22. To be honest, I only went to college solely for the reason that it was pretty much the expected thing to do, both in terms of family and societal expectations. For better or for worse...
Any number of trades could easily see that income
 
Yeah not a lot of loyalty there. People really have to think about what/where they start depending on where they want to end up. I'm still 800 hours short but I do think about where I'd like to land. I'm assuming one should have a good answer for every choice they made chasing this career.

The issue isn't loyalty, it's bad decision making. Every time you reset your seniority you're putting yourself further away from upgrade, outside of a few exceptions
 
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