For most of the IAH/IAD system, you'll be staying in isolated LaQuintas, Microtels, and Days Inns (or the "AmericaInn" equivalent in OKC). If you plan on working out or eating healthy, your best bet is a national membership to Anytime/LA Fitness/Lifetime Fitness, and just Uber or use a taxi to get there--our average hotels don't have "real" gyms or exercise equipment, and the breakfast is usually powdered eggs and self-made waffles...you know--the stuff that makes rednecks think "wow ya'll free breakfast!" while killing them of heart disease/Type-II diabetes around the time they hit retirement age.

We are truly the only regional left who uses LaQuintas/Days Inns/Microtels in a majority of cities in 2016. Shaking my head.

 

Hilarious! I agree with all of the above.

 

I thought the same thing. There is room for optimism.

And I don't think these are the caliber of people looking to be 'set up at Mesa for life'. I think they see that the regional industry has finally made a turn for the better and are looking to bring Mesa in to the new era. Let's hope they have some success and that it comes sooner rather than later. Mesa needs it to happen to be able to recruit going forward.

 

But how long will it take?? Several including myself are contemplating risking losing Mesa seniority to start over at another regional that has better pay currently and is growing, etc. If they could hammer something out sooner rather than later, I'd prefer to keep seniority, and not take the risk of a lateral move. But, I also have bills to pay and hate having days off and not being able to afford to do anything :/

 

In the email the negotiators are correct
"As a committee, in return for our effort, we ask you—each pilot and every pilot, for one thing: tell us first. If you have a complaint, question, concern, you heard a rumor, or just need to vent—please, tell us. It is critical that the committee gets this information if we are to be productive in our efforts, for all of us. The moment you find yourself complaining to your first officer, to your captain, to your friend on the jet bridge or crew room, or posting on a message board—you need to be saying the same exact thing to us directly and I urge you to do exactly that."
So, instead of venting on a forum, Facebook or in the crew room contact your negotiators. We are all guilty of this and I understand all of our frustrations of our previous inept union representation. As a unified pilot group let's make a difference this time around.

 

I personally know one of the NC members pretty well. I have talked to them on numerous occasions about their new jobs, and I can tell you that everything they say makes me believe these guys have the best intentions. They know we need more, and they are going to fight for it. The member I know is in no way pro company or trying to set themselves up at Mesa. I was pretty hopefully when I read that email.

 

Forgive me for interjecting an outsider's view into Mesa internal business, but after being on APC for a few months and seeing the (lack of) intestinal fortitude and proclivity for whining on here, the MEC would be well served by setting up an anonymous "suggestion box" on the Mesa intraweb. There are people who just won't speak up out there. And while it can be argued that they often don't have much of value to say (as evidenced by the Keyboard Warriors on APC), that is not always the case, and good ideas or at least true feelings may be had by such a concept.

Then to be fair, management should list ALL suggestions/comments on a webpage for all to see and vote on, poll style. Drop all the unreasonable suggestions by a member voting process, not just the management deciding on what makes the cut.

 

I know. I am also contemplating leaving sooner rather than later. I already have an exit plan but I am now evaluating whether is it even worth it to hang out long enough to execute that plan.

I'm afraid that even when (IF) Mesa does make the necessary improvements to keep the business alive, it will be the bare minimum and it will be too little, too late. Great Lakes style. Republic style. Although Republic made vast improvements, they are still in a heap of trouble and may not be able to recover. Too little, too late. And frankly, I don't see Mesa stepping up and making the magnitude of improvements Republic made. I hope I am wrong on this. I hope they step up and make Mesa a good place to be for pilots. And I hope they do it soon.

So, like you and many others, I'm looking at making the leap sooner rather than later too. I think the bigger risk is sticking around too long and losing valuable time that we could be making a viable living elsewhere, moving quickly toward PIC time, and moving on.

The way I'm looking at it now, is if I leave and pretty much double my income immediately, go to a place that is growing, and am looking at a pretty quick upgrade (upgrade time are coming down everywhere), what have I lost? Nothing.

 

Two years min... Company has zero reason to give a contract to the pilots.

No reason any FO should stay. No future. Many regionals offer direct flows.

Many lifer CA's are finally making their way out as well.

 

I'd like to think these two statements contradict each other. It's just a question of how long it takes management to react.