I'm writing this only to correct from a factual standpoint. 9E guys would have been better off with DOH, because the XJ version of DOH did not have the quotas/restrictions that the Bloch award put out. DOH would have been better, with people bidding what they could hold without regards to quotas. Yes XJ had tons of pilots in the 10-11 year mark, and guess what, I'd have no qualms about them being senior because they were hired first. For regionals, DOH is the fairest you can get. Instead of this POS Bloch award where some Colgan pilot named Nikolai born in '88 and hired in early '08 gets to be approx 1350ish out of nearly 3000 when the list came out. That's a bunch of BS and a windfall for Colgan. Not to mention, as the Colgan guys came from the Q props (which if you recall during SLI, many of them said they had no interest in the jets - they lied and went for the money grab), they were replaced by other Colgan pilots because of the 193 quota. Only a very small portion of XJ/9E pilots got awarded a Q, and those you could count on with probably one hand. Mooney, at the regional level, you can understand that DOH is fair. If tomorrow a XJ pilot hired in 2006 gets an upgrade, you can't really flip out or get upset as a 2007 DOH pilot. That is the seniority based system, he was hired first. Yeah, yeah I know seniority shouldn't be confused with longevity, but don't throw longevity in an argument when their airline doesn't even exist today. Most pilots that are upset at the Bloch award are upset because pilots physically junior to them are holding positions far better than they can, and the quotas only make it worse. I did the math in my own position for DOH versus what the bloch award was. DOH would have been slightly better, but the biggest gain would be the fairness in it all with no silly quotas or restrictions.

As for Hunta, I talked to him on the phone. His own words were that the -900 category was 'our worst case scenario.' You have to ask yourself, whose worst scenario? Certainly not mine. His actions proved that he was interested in preserving only the senior side, and even he failed once Bloch gave the -900 its own category. I used to be a hothead against Mesaba when the dispute was filed, until one XJ pilot actually sent me the email chain between the 9E/XJ/9L group and Bloch in regards to the SLI class date vs DOH issue. All I will say is that the XJ group was factual and 9E guys were full of crap. I was assured by Hunta that the class date issue was already addressed and fixed, yet, in that email chain, Bloch's response was (and I quote): 'John, can you clarify this for me.' It proved Bloch was clueless and the class date vs DOH was NEVER fixed as it should have been. The Mesaba dispute was therefore legitimate. The 9E team was unprepared and incompetent.