Mesaba vs. Colgan
 

Currently I'm a first officer at Colgan, I have been offered a street captain position at mesaba. I'm tentatively scheduled to upgrade at colgan in FEB. Is it better to go to mesaba and starting getting some PIC and be on reserve and doing standup overnights, or stay at Colgan and wait 2 to 4 months to upgrade but have seniority? Any thoughts are appreciated.

I think Mesaba is a better company with better pay rates for the Saab...obviously Im just a little biased :D

Unless you have a serious desire to sit reserve in DTW or MEM for the next 3 years, you would be best suited to stay at Colgan. There are many people at XJ waiting to upgrade after the holiday season. You would be coming in at the tail end of the hiring here, with a seniority number of at least 850. Numbers 540 and above have been at the company since at least 2004, and there is a quite a few that have not upgraded for multiple reasons, but none that I am aware of that cant upgrade. There are at least 55 FO's in MSP that can upgrade, but some may be holding out for the 200 or 900. I dont fly out of DTW so I dont know the situation there, but that is a run down of what you can expect to be bumping you down each month during the bid.
Good luck with your decision

How could a seniority number of 850 be at the tail end of hiring? The current roster sits at 869. We still have over 20 CR9's yet to be delivered and 13 CRJ2's from 9E. Or are you referring to the end of street captain hiring?

We've currently hired 324 as of Oct 1. When all the planes are delivered we'll have 102 which would bring the list out to approx 1050 with management and instructors. So if somebody took a street captain position they would be on reserve forever or until they left.

So how long would it take to hold MSP as a street captain? That is a major reason I want to go to XJ

Good luck with that. It really depends, MSP has always been senior, the most junior SFC CA in MSP is 509. Its really hard to tell, most of the SF3 guys can't bid to the jet because of the seat lock, and if they hire street CA into the jet it releases the seat lock for the SF3 guys. Confusing but hope that helps.

Does anyone have any idea of what kind of usage a reserve captain might get any predictions.

When? or will they ever have to hire street captains into the CRJ 200?

This is confusing but I would say never. The union and the pilots would not allow this. Some street captain making alot more money when alot more senior people could have hold this. My understanding is that if the need arises to hire into the CR2 then they will release the seat locks for the SF3 CA and the street CA with take that position instead.