Originally Posted by
flapshalfspeed
With all due respect, sir...how you were "looking out for the industry in the long-term" by accepting sub-par wages, 50-seat base pay, and working under a bankruptcy contract for a decade?
Methinks you weren't doing anything other than looking out for your own Captain seat/salary while flying here over the last decade. Otherwise, why didn't you make a stand and start all over as an FO at an "industry-leading" carrier like XJet/Envoy/ASA?
I'm not judging you for staying here for a decade--I love Mesa, I love our chief pilots, and I love our training department/laid-back corporate culture. I would've done the exact same thing you did (seniority/QOL/upgrade times mean everything). But don't try to twist your decision to stay here all that time into some sort of claim that you were "doing it for the industry"--it's insulting to people who actually lost their jobs making stands against low pay and poor working conditions at other regionals, instead of accepting it out of self-interest for a decade.
I wised up and realized that it's smarter to do what's best for my individual bottom-line, rather than make a stand and put my neck on the chopping-block. Coming to Mesa was the best decision of my life. I just don't think you get to make the claim that you "sacrificed" unless you actually lived through a furlough/downgrade/etc. by making a stand. Have you?
Lastly, please don't patronize the new guys--many of them are highly informed XJet/Envoy/CommutAir/Colgan/Pinnacle refugees who came here for the fast upgrade after sacrificing years of their lives at higher-paying regionals while you enjoyed your "decade of sacrifice" in a left-seat that you kept b/c you fly for the lowest-cost carrier.
I know you want your decade of service at low wages to mean something--I get that completely--but "sacrifice" is a relative term, and I don't think you're using it accurately here.
The comair guys are the ones who should be insulted by guys like you. You have done nothing!
I picked an airline not knowing what I was getting into and have tried to improve it along the way to leave it better then I started. I voted no on the last contract. I made the decision not to go to Freedom and lower the bar. Mesa wanted a 5 percent pay cut during bankruptcy, I said no putting all our jobs/seats on the line. You also forget I had less options then you did today. It is true, I want my decade to mean something, that is right, I want to leave this place better. It is you who are making it worse. So yes I have actually done something.
Besides I am assuming you voted yes at your last airline (since you are voting yes already here) only to have the senior guys vote no and you got furloughed. So you are probably hurt that you couldn't work for less, in trade for job security, and take flying from other airlines just to keep your job. You are just doing it here again because you are selfish. Scared you might actually have to be an FO and work under the wages voted in from the last newbies who helped vote it in, and who were after that fast upgrade as well, that traded pay for it.
I have realized the new guys are the cancer in my time in aviation. The pay rates are what they are now because of the new guys we had at that time voting yes. It is happening again. So it is your fault. Guys like you are the same ones who go to GO jets, PSA, and were Freedom A listers. So I will patronize the new guys all I want because they complain about the low pay, yet they created. Stop your complaining about the pay. You did this. Accept it.
One day you will be on the other end trying to improve your airline only to have the new guys undercutting you just for an upgrade. Remember that. I don't think you have any idea what sacrifice means. In your response you state instead of raising the bar, you decided to sell out. You realized it was better for you. That is not sacrifice, that is selfishness. Yet you say I am the one not using it accurately? Wow. Keep trying to sugar coat that turd you are trying to sell. lol