Heyas,
Traditionally, NWA has been one of the few places where knowing someone hasn't been a requirement.
In fact, during the last hiring go-around, they wouldn't even look at any letters until Phase 2 of the interview, and by then, the job was your's to lose anyway.
With that said, towards the end of 2000 and a small bit into 2001, they did set up a recommendation process, but only because they were having a fairly high number of people quit during the first year AND they were having people no-show or quit during class.
NWA has pretty much always been the backup place to work unless you were from Minnesota. Get hired, and if AMR or DAL called, you split. These days, it would be SWA or FDX, but the principal is the same.
I wouldn't expect to see LORs as any kind of requirement, and no mechanism for pilot recs has been announced.
Nu