First of all I just wanted to thank everybody for taking time out of your days to answer questions from potential pilots. It really means a lot!
I am about to graduate college (22 years old), and I am still deciding between career paths. One career path that I am particularly interested in is joining the military to fly. I have always had a passion to serve our country and to fly. My dad was in the military so I have a taste of what the lifestyle can be like. Ideally, after the military career, I would transition to an airline.
I have done some digging and have found that, as far as seniority goes (correct me if I am wrong), having flying experience from the military does not benefit a pilot transitioning to an airline. For example, Pilot A who has 10 years of flying experience for the military will start at the exact same level and seniority as Pilot B without military experience who was hired the same day as Pilot A. Would this still apply if Pilot A was a pilot for the Navy’s version of the 737 (P-8), and wanted to fly 737s for the majors? Thank you all!
Seniority is based SOLELY on your date of hire at the particular airline you work for. What you did prior to that day does not matter one single bit. Ever. You could be a 4 star general with 20,000 hrs in the P-8 who then retired and worked for Boeing as a test pilot in 737, helped write the manual and btw your father is the CEO for Delta. If I just got hired after flight instructing in a Cessna with no other time but I’m hired one day or am even senior to you in our new hire class I will always be senior to you at that airline FOREVER.
Seniority is based on date of hire, past experience does not matter in regards to that. Past experience certainly does matter in regards to being hired though and the major airlines do tend to like applicants with prior military flying experience.
If you went and flew for the military, you would not need to attend civilian flight school in order to apply to the airlines. The military training generally suffices.