I'm aware of that, but I asking a CFI how to land an airline job is kinda like asking a college ball player how to make it in the NFL. He's better off asking a real airline pilot about the process. Since there are several of those types on this forum, I think it's a reasonable post on his part.

One of my CFI's is a former airline pilot. 2 others at the school are furloughed airline pilots. Better to ask a CFI than a bunch of anymouses on the interwebs.

One of my CFI's is a former airline pilot. 2 others at the school are furloughed airline pilots. Better to ask a CFI than a bunch of anymouses on the interwebs.

I think he was referring to CFI's with no airline experience. Only my current CFI (who funnily enough is training me for my CFI rating) has airline experience (ComAir i think it was). My other 8 CFI's (I had some CFI's doing tag-teams on me to help meet my schedule) had no Major airline experience. Only 1 had some commercial experience flying a de Havilland Heron.

For a little background, right now, I'm a CFI who used to use FS a LOT. I hope to get into an airline pretty soon. Here's my take on the matter:1. Know WHY you want to be a pilot. If there's anything else you'd rather do, go for that instead. The profession requires a LOT of sacrifice. You will face difficulties at every turn and you must be willing to deal with them.2. Get a degree in something NOT related to aviation. An aviation degree won't help you get into an airline, and it certainly won't help you outside the industry.3. The money isn't what it used to be.4. Talk to pilots and see what they have to say. You'd be surprised how different the FS world can be from the real world. In FS, you do what you want, how you want, when you want and if you want to. Doesn't work like that in real life. You'll be given SOP's and expected to follow them exactly.I'm going to leave you with a quote from another forum. The original poster is a Captain for a US carrier.--------------------How to make Virtual Airline Flying more realistic: Show up one hour prior to take-off for a :30 minute flight. Empty all your pockets of metal as you go through the door to your PC. For extra credit, have your teenage offspring search your flightcase, shoes, wallet. Take the one-page flightplan you generated for your flight, get all 8.5 x 11 inch papers from your waste-basket, mix them up and spend ten minutes looking for the critical page, then spill coffee on it. Put seatbelt/shoulder harness on your office chair. For that extra GOOD MORNING feeling sit on the buckle. If your flying out of Grand Forks ND in January, turn your house air conditioning full till it is about 10 degrees F. Then, when (if) you get the APU running turn the heat on. Once you get ready to fly, get up, go outside and do a complete walk-around of your house, rain, snow or shine, in a $300 suit. Wear a white shirt with a fresh coffee stain. A tie is a must (no clip-on) Eat a half-cooked TV dinner while flying. Try explaining the concept of “sterile cockpit” to your SO (significant other) If your pet comes to visit, explain the instruments to it. Ask it if it likes ‘Gladiator’ Movies Never accelerate the sim clock no matter how boring the ocean or Nebraska is. When flying at night, turn off the lights. If flying into a dawn or sunset, shine a 120 watt bulb into your face. If you SO complains, do informational picketing, then “walk” if that doesn’t work. If you fly with a co-pilot, determine who’s senior and dump the radios, walk-around and second meal choice on the junior crewmember. If your co-pilot leaves the flightdeck and you’re above FL350, place a mask over your nose/mouth till they return. If your flying a new Boeing, throw a blanket with fuzzy surface on your chair. This should leave lint on your clothes like real Boeing flight deck seatcovers do. If you fly a “Glass cockpit” a/c, type at least 40 wpm. (old steam gauge pilot’s joke). Find the lumpiest bed in your house, pretend it is a hotel and sleep for EXACTLY 8 hours before the alarm. Enjoy your Sim Session

I do agree. FS flying is nothing compared to real world flying because of the restrictions (both legal and money) that we have. And while most airlines are like this, some are actually well liked by their pilots. At Hawaiian, I always talk to the FO's (a lot of them are former CFI's I used to know but never trained under). Especially the inter-island guys love it. But mind you they're home every day and they either work the morning shift, or evening shift. Not all day long just to end up in a city a few hundred miles from home. Also, if it is say the last flight of the day, I've seen some FO's take the 717's they fly up to 5 kts below redline. The Captains sometimes take it right up to redline. And you wonder why Hawaiian is America's number 1 on-time airline...The Trans-Pac pilots do pretty well too. They fly 4 round trip flights a month. And say it's a flight to Vegas; they fly in at night, sleep, wake up and have a day to do whatever, sleep, fly back the next morning and are home for lunch. Mind you this gets complicated for the Asian flights but I've heard no complaints.The starting pay is pretty low at only $36 and hour for 70 hours a month guaranteed . That's about $24,000 that year after taxes. But the next year with the company jumps to I think it was $36,000 that year after taxes. I can't remember what it was after that. Captains for the 717 start at about $140 an hour. Yeah, it's still not a heck of a lot compared to what it used to be but compared to some of the companies currently out there, it's not bad either.As far as benefits, my very close friend's wife ended up being diagnosed with cancer just after his probational year was up. The insurance was able to cover the medical expences easily and he's been on paid leave since August. The Chief Pilot said he still had a year of sick leave (other pilots donated to him) and he could come back whenever. I think he just went back to recertification training 2 weeks ago. Some airlines do take care of their pilots. You just have to find them.EDIT: Just saw this POST on an interview with Captain Sully. Worth a look to see the current climate in parts of the airline industry.