Oooooooo Mr. Big Shot had a "real interview back in the days." So did most of us 2013 Mesa-hires at our last regionals/freight companies. But, unlike you, many of us actually got shoved out the door and had to work our way back into this racket from the unemployment line in the middle of the greatest economic downturn in this country's history since the Great Depression. Do you want us to pat you on the back for riding out the tough years in your little Captain seat at Mesa? Here's a cookie--I'll warm it up in the EJet oven for you once they're installed.

There is not much money at the regionals anymore because, subsequent to the Comair strike, the legacies--following Delta's lead as usual--partitioned-out regional feed to multiple carriers as a risk-management strategy. Realizing the potential of a never-ending whipsaw, and understanding ALPA national's unwillingness to devote political/negotiating capital to enforcing minimum contract standards at the regional level...well, you basically lost your argument around 2001, sir.

You will lose your job if that happens. The flying will not go back to the legacies--it will go to any other regional willing to bid low enough to secure it. And if they can't find an independent 121 certificate to fly it (and staff it) for cheap enough, the legacy in question will simply create a wholly-owned regional (again), load it up with guaranteed flying for a decade, and ink a flow agreement to make sure it is staffed properly. A decade will go by, and at the end of that decade they'll sell off the wholly-owned as a publicly-traded company the millisecond THOSE pilots push for too much money. Rinse, repeat, redo 2000-2015 all over again.

You're obviously a senior Captain at Mesa who started out on a turboprop doing EAS routes, and you don't really, truly comprehend what you're up against when you start sparring with cost structures on legacy feed on a national level. We're not talking about negotiating payrates for flying a 1900 around rural Kansas or upstate New York--we're talking about retaining 76-seat jet feed for United Airlines and American Airlines. This is not a mom & pop operation where you just pound your chest and threaten to call off sick with your fellow pilots to get a raise--every single Mesa pilot could vote no on this TA and it will not cause a single dollar more to be offered by Mesa (or, ipso facto legacy United/American). It will not cause a single airframe to go to mainline--ever.

You obviously haven't stuck your neck out, or felt the consequences of "standing up with other pilots" before. While you were riding out a concessionary agreement at Mesa for the last decade (which, by the way, saved your job) I was rabble-rousing at my last airline, with a 99% strike vote and a "burn it all down" mentality. Guess what? We secured a stellar contract! And it was thrown out by the bankruptcy court--as planned--the second the ink was dry.

The picture you're trying to paint of naive FNG new hires bending over and taking it is completely inaccurate...in fact, a huge percentage of recent Mesa hires are the exact opposite--we drew a line in the sand at our last companies, paid the price for it, and realized it wasn't worth losing years of our lives, our seats, and ultimately our jobs.

You do realize how many former Republic/Pinnacolaba/Eagle pilots make up the bottom half of the current MAG seniority list, right? We all know what happens when senior lifers tell the company to pound sand, and we all came here to get away from the misery that ensues.