neville_nobody
I can assure you that virtually every major airline in the US had dropped the degree requirement by 1999.
AIRinc can tell anyone wanting to know what each majors 'minimums' are in the US.
Clearly these rather random 'requirements' have in the past been a way to artificially reduce the number of applicants. This same system has been used at universities for years where entrance scores are varied every year based on supply of candidates Vs number of places available.
Either this is an obvious wind up or an unfortunate display of arrogance from a couple of mainline pilots.