I don't think anyone took the job saying "I'm never leaving here" but there's a reason people still dodge Freedom, Mesa, Colgan, TSA, GoJets, and so on. While none of us want to "never leave here" you still want to work at a place with respectable work rules and pay in the event something happens. What if all these mergers take place and many pilots are out getting furloughed? You want to be stuck at Mesa another 5yrs? Whatever your personal reason may be you're still being paid to fly a commercial airliner. It's a job. You build time while doing it but saying you're there just for time building means you might as well work at the one of the aforementioned places with no self respect.

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I also checked and even as a captain at RAH you still can't switch between aircraft once the two year seatlock is up unless moving to higher pay. So 145-> 170 but if they open a base in your home after you take the 170 tough cookies. Kinda sucks.