Mesa
 

I am approaching competitive times to send in my stuff to the regionals and was considering Mesa as one of my options. I have heard mixed reviews about them. I dont have too many friends that work for them and was wondering if you guys could give me some fair opinions as to work rules, lifestyle, upgrades, etc...

Thanks

mack, i work at mesa. i say again, i work at mesa.

now that i got that out of my system.

apply everywhere(including mesa) even if you dont think you meet the req's. you never know what staffing needs will be at any given time. as far as mesa goes...

workrules, we have none. we fly the far's and that is it. even then it is pushed to the limit. no cancel pay(weather, re-crew, etc.), ready reserve is either 8,10,12 hour shifts(this totally blows), 70 min pay per 28 day bid(13 per year), 8 min days off for reserve, 10 min for line holders(this also blows), 1 1/2 hour call out on reserve

lifestyle, frugal. first year pay is currently $21.88 jet and around $18.00 prop
jet bases include PHX, BNA, ORD, IAD, CLT and MCO
props....hell i can't keep track of them all
if you get the jet(crj or erj) life is better if you get the beech life is worse
either way you must be careful with your money

upgrades are currently under two years on the jet and even quicker on the props. i consider mesa another stop in my career, nothing more or less. there are worse things i could be doing. our contract expires march 07' and we'll see if the pilot group has the balls this time to make a stand.

good luck.

I have a lot of friends at Mesa
 

I worked at Mesa Pilot Development last year. Many of my friends and former students now fly for Mesa as FOs and one captain. Most of them seem to like their coworkers, but the pay is very low for FOs. Also the scheduling and duty times seem to be a common problem with the company. They are not very well respected in the industry because the management tries to undercut the pay of other airlines and forces the entire industry to lower pay scales. Captains, however, are paid about the same at Mesa as the rest of the industry. Top captain pay at Mesa is actually higher than many regional airlines...so you make the call.

Do yourself and 1,000's of others like us and don't go there. Go there, and you'll know what I mean. Don't go there and go somewhere else (except for Gulfstream), and you'll still know what I mean.

For me it took going to the interview to decide not to go. They offered me the job, but I didn't offer the job to them. My first problem was with the $50 interview fee. It reminds me of a story that I heard about how a pimp used to find new girls, but I'll paraphrase to keep it g-rated. Basically, if a company like mesa is going to charge $50 just to interview, I think of that as their first level of screening. Anyone who will pay the fee is either desperate, submissive, or just hasn't thought it through. Since I paid it, I guess I hope I'm in the last category. Think of it from their perspective... if you are willing to pay just to interview, aren't you much more likely to be willing to, uh, "accept" the company's shortcomings down the road?

Furthermore, my impression of the management wasn't so good. The cheif pilot representative didn't bother to take the little earpiece out of his ear during the interview, and he was quick to lecture us about how we weren't going to have a good quality of life at his company at any time, even after upgrading. Well, at least he was honest. I consider myself competitive for any crj job, and honestly, I think I found a much better job at another company. Someone told me one time that living with a regional job is deciding what you are willing to put up with and for how long, ie compromise. You will have to make your own determination, but don't take a job at mesa just because it is the only one that will let you pay them money to interview you; if it isn't what you want, you'll only be dissapointed that much sooner. Instead, think of things like geography and equipment. Are you willing to move anywhere? If not, pick the company that serves the part of the country that you want to be in. Do you want to fly jets? If so, then don't go somewhere that is going to put you in a turboprop. At any rate, my advice is to try to resist taking a job just because it is the only offer. If mesa is your best offer, then go for it.

Mesa
 

I just realized my post about Mesa and the CEO was taken off the boards by the admins. I would like to apologize for posting something they found highly objectionable. I just reviewed the rules and realize my post was hateful and therefore subject to removal. The fact that my post was removed should be a strong indication of how I feel about the folks at Mesa. I believe they represent all that is wrong with bad personnel management.

If you go there, get in and get out. Don't enable Jonathan Ornstein any more than you have to.