Originally Posted by
bohicagain
So for someone hired with seniority 1000 upgrade is at 6 months? I dont expect that stay around to long.
Compass does not pay for lodging in MSP for an entire 4 days, When you are in YUL for the 35-40 days your are getting a single occupancy hotel and 24/7 per diem.
Everything will change, hell by next year we will all be wearing the same uniform
What did the NWA and DAL presentation say?
At the outset, let me say that I like Compass as Compass had offered me a job last year but I turned them down because I had already gone through a training with Mesaba. You are right about us wearing same uniforms by next year, though. The Mesaba Compass Holding Corporation will eventually take over all management of Mesaba and Compass operations. This info was from a NWA employee who was setting up operations for Compass. The NWA/DAL presentation was given by DAL pilot manager and NWA rep and they presented the present status such as NWA has 8 regionals flying for them and that will surely decrease in number drastically.
NWA/DAL is looking for 100 seat mainline jets to replace less fuel efficient DC9s, MD80s and A319/320s, but at present they are not available at a "reasonable price." Many of us gathered from this presentation that 50 seat RJs will surely go first so after Mesaba has 17 CRJ200s, Mesaba will probably not receive any more CRJ200s. For now, it seems Mesaba and Compass will do just fine with E175s and CRJ900s. The options for 18 additional aircraft has not been exercised. Either Compass or Mesaba will get those depending on what NWA management decides. In fact, NWA has options for more than 18 aircraft but that seems unlikely now with the fuel price soaring.
The NWA rep in response to a question about flowthrough, stated that both Mesaba and Compass has the flowthrough agreement with NWA and that 14 Mesaba pilots have so far flowed up to NWA and no one from Compass has flowed up yet because of the 30month requirement. Whether it will remain after the merger, he said, needs to be negotiated and he could not answer whether it will remain intact or not. This is not a priority agenda on their table, it seems.
E175 seems more comfortable and has autothrottle which the CRJ900 does not have. CRJ900 is fairly fuel efficient and fast but narrow in the cabin, which in my opinion is a drawback but passengers seems to like it and as you know price is everything nowadays. My take is that NWA will continue to operate E175s and CRJ900s for now. I noticed that both Compass and Mesaba are getting new cities every month. If I am not mistaken Compass will start flying to Monterey Mexico starting June, and Mesaba will start flying to Denver in June along with 4 other new cities.