The degree is just "one of those things." It's possible to get to a major through a flow program without one, but when 99% of your competition has one...well you get the point.
Some carriers will hire without one, but American, United, Delta, and Southwest generally won't. With FAA certs and a 2 year degree, it probably wouldn't take more than 12 months to complete as you will receive quite a few transfer credits.
There are other carriers like Atlas and Spirit who pay pretty well who don't require one. Not sure about JetBlue.
I'm not as militant with Bondi, because guys who go work at Norwegian aren't scabs, but I don't look at Norwegian favorably at all either.
Welcome to the States and good luck!