Happiness = Reality - Expectations

For those of us who came here from other airlines in 2013, the above equation is working out pretty well--we came in from dying 50-seat operations with no hope of upgrade, before Mesa's current growth wave, with very low expectations. The reality (at this moment in time) has far exceeded my expectations for what I thought would be a short stint at Mesa prior to leaving for a contract job overseas (I decided to stay when upgrade times plummeted and deliveries were announced).

Obviously, there are many trolls on this thread who signed up for other "better" regionals with high expectations, and now that their reality isn't meeting up to their expectations, they're taking out their unhappiness on those of us who randomly got lucky and had things work out.

There is nothing to be gained at the regional level by getting personally worked up about the business cycle, and there is nothing to be sacrificed because any regional who pushes the bar too high simply gets cut down to their knees again. I've been on both sides of the above equation at different times in my career, and you simply have to get over yourself and not get emotionally invested in this job--ever.

Mesa will eventually stop living up to people's expectations of quick upgrades/holding bases/etc..--I don't know when that will be--but no amount of hating/trolling/Mesa-bashing is going to speed up or slow down the microeconomics and market forces that are leading people to work here.