You're right, my buddies in DFW and PHX are still a little ways away from holding a line. But the spring flying is picking up next month, and things will continue to improve. We lost 18 on the most recent update of the seniority list, and 15 were senior to me. I have around 200 people junior to me, with more ejets still on the way.

Yes, our pay sucks, but I'm still happy with my decision to come here. I took a 50% cut from charter to come here, and only time will tell if I made the correct decision, but I don't regret it.

So far, I've traveled to four continents and to each corner of America. I'm young and debt free, things aren't as bad as some make it out to be.

 

Well, if airplanes move, so do pilots, and if they are going to PHX, those will be senior pilots leaving DFW. Good for jr CA's I would think.

 

Thanks for the link!
I appreciate it.

 

Hello,

New to the forum.

Early Summer 2015 class date

DFW CRJ FO

I have bid a line every month after I completed training. As far as how I bid- I request no specific days off and select same day pairings or whatever the lingo is on the antiquated bid system. For people who do not understand what this means, I essentially tell the company they can assign me any schedule they like.
Importantly, the result is, I have never received a line.

As it looks going forward I am not likely to get a line until hopefully March.

I sit ready reserve at DFW an average of approximately 9 days per month. There are 40 or 50 (haven't counted in awhile) people junior to me on the DFW seniority
list.

January I flew less than 16 hours.

I have less than 300 hours in the airplane.

I want to fly but fact is that I sit at the airport on ready reserve.

All of my classmates have had a very similar experience thus far.

Additionally, the majority of the hotels we stay in are completely unacceptable.

My reason for posting this is to simply provide an accurate current pilot's experience at Mesa .

 

How does pay work for captain upgrades? Do you not get paid captain salary until you finish IOE? Someone told me its a prorated pay, so you would get paid captain salary during training, but you won't get the actual money until you finish IOE. And if you failed any part of the training you'd be simply paid as an FO for your time during training.

 

I believe you start earning captain pay when you pass your check ride, but you don't get it until a month or so after your fed ride.

 

I believe this is correct as well. I just passed my FED ride/ line check 2 days ago, so I'll give and accurate update when I see my first full CA paycheck.

 

I'm no Mesa cheerleader (I'm sure others can attest to that), but your experience here as far as flight time and reserve go are not unique to Mesa. That's just the way it is being junior at any regional airline. I was hired here about 3 months earlier than you and am just now at the point where I'm not sitting ready reserve every day at DFW and I'm still not a line holder.

And honestly, after seeing some of the lines people get when they waive everything, I think next month I'm not going to waive anything and just sit reserve again. Those "waived" lines are really, really ugly.

 

Why is the PHX base more difficult/longer to get a line or upgrade? Or is that still true now?

 

Because it's an extremely senior base with very little movement.