Joe - you're preaching to the choir. In the time I've been at Mesaba, I've been on reserve, or some form of it, for about 75% of the time. I was an FO for 6 years! That makes a lot of months on guarantee for little pay and hardly any perdiem. I completely understand where you're coming from. Honestly. My years of struggling as an FO at this airline are finally paying off, so I can appreciate where you're coming from. It will get better. It might seem like the world is coming to an end for a lot of you post Ch11 new hires. In reality... you guys don't realize HOW GOOD YOU'VE GOT IT.

The only way you're going to get through this is to get creative, live within your means, look on the brightside and be patient. There's nothing you can do about the equipment you were assigned. That's just the way the chips fell. Don't forget that the company never promised you a line, never promised you a quick upgrade and certainly didn't promise you would get rich doing this job.