MESABA or COMAIR
 

got a call to interview with mesaba...5 years to make what i have made in 2... just wonder what other comair pilots are thinking...give up the number and start again or will comair make a come back again...just want other opinions.

At the moment, it seems Mesaba is the golden child. It will change eventually though. Just how far you get before that change is what is unknown. Why would Mesaba make you give up your number at Comair?

My Opinion Is I Would Enjoy Time Off And I Put Money On This Company And I Would Hold Out For COMAIR And Take A Recall In A Few Months... They Will Make A Big Comeback They Are Going To Be Growing Like Crazy.

C'mon brotha, you're aware its' not prudent to inhale a few times then post hallucinative dreams....lol!:D

I'm in the same boat... I just got the call to interview yesterday... Not sure what to do. It is a hard thought for me to give up almost a year and a half of seniority and be based away from my home (CVG).... What to do... what to do...?

I'm in the same situation TAILSKID. Things are looking pretty crappy at COMAIR. MESABA seems to have what DELTA wants from a regional: turboprops and 90 seaters...I guess at MESABA I can upgrade this century, get PIC, and move on..

Move on to where? Almost no one is hiring.

They will be eventually. Age 65 hurt any forward progress in this business for another 4 years. After that the flood gates will open. Before age 65 was passed CAL, NWA, USair East, and AA all had more than 50% of their pilot groups retiring in the next 10 years. So 4 years from now that will be true again.

Very hard decision for all of you guys at comair. I know a few of my friends who are furloughed have already been hired and are struggling with the same decision. I say if you were hired at comair within the last year and have the chance to go to Mesaba go. Mesaba's payrate are not good right now but they have snap back provisions in the contract that start to raise the pay to pre bankruptcy levels next year. So by the time you are on 2nd year pay it will be much better than it is right now.

Now if you were hired a year and a half ago it much harder to leave just because of the sheer amount of hiring comair was doing last year. Your seniority is much greater than the guys who only got hired in the last few months. We were running classes of 20 a week for a while so its much harder for you guys to leave. I dont want to be in your situation but maybe its for the better. Comair could easily be gone in a few months or hiring again. Who knows?

Well then how does he have an interview?! ;)

I can't believe you guys are even asking this question. Even if you have one year of seniority at CMR, and say you WOULD get re-called, your QOL would be the same crap that it was when you left. Unless you have been at CMR for 15+ years there would be no reason to come back. That's just my opinion, but the choice is yours.

Hey Diver, or anyone else who is interested in Mesaba. I'm a Comair guy with 1.5 yrs of senioroity at Comair (May 2007 hire). It was a very tough decision for me but I'm pretty sure I'm heading to Mesaba. Its a much younger company, unlike Comair and everyone there is at Mesaba to get their time and leave (unlike Comair). I think you'll see upgrade at Mesaba before Comair. Anyone who wants info on the interview let me know.

It seems that you guys are in a very tough situation. Here is my take on this chess game they are playing. Right now you have seniority at Comair and you may be willing to give that up to go over to Mesaba. Mesaba looks nice now, because there is movement over there. I see that just like SJS and I wouldn't take the bait. Comair's contract is open for negotiations next year, so don't think for a minute that the Comair guys won't be fighting snapbacks from the BK as well as getting back what we have lost since 2005. I would be hard pressed to give up any kind of seniority over 6 months right now with everything that is going on. Let's say Comair, Compass, Mesaba, or Pinnacle get merged. On a date of hire seniority integration, you would be giving up your 6 months to a year and a half of seniority. Now if you stay, you will have seniority over everyone that is getting on with Mesaba right now. I just think there is too much risk invovled when you could keep your number right now and get a non-flying job in the meantime. You would most likely enjoy your QOL waiting for a recall as well.

Turbo do agree with your philosphy and under normal circumstances I would tend to stay away or steer someone from a lateral move. However, and just my opinion, it will be tough to fight back during contract negotiations when we have no airline. I firmly believe based on past history, the trends, movement in management and GO, and lasttly what I have been unofficially told we will not be operating as a flight airline. At best it will be a very very senior group which not even my 8 years would suffice. 1.5 years seniority, I would favor leaving at best just because of the relationship and treatment of this airline on its employee's. This being my third airline, it is by far the worst in faulty leadership and stability including QOL. Just my ten cents, good luck to everyone on whatever they decide. One side note, JS even mentions that many questions are still unanswered on comair in lite of the merger...read between the lines.

Show me an ALPA merger where guys on the street got DOH over guys currently on the line. Ill give you a hint. There arent any. If he went to Mesaba and we merged all the carriers tomorrow he would be ahead of everyone on comairs seniority list that is currently furloughed.

hey comair guys, I don't work at Mesaba but if you can, maybe hold off until the actual announcements are made. That way incase anything crazy happens you already have a job. Remember your company just hired until they furloughed, not saying that is going to happen at Mesaba, but there is a chance. If Mesaba makes the announcement that they are growing like crazy, they will need pilots bad and you wont give up too much seniority by waiting to make sure it is going to happen. Good luck whatever you do

What make you think that Mesaba would be ahead of everyone at Comair. do you think they would staple Comair to the bottom of Mesaba's list? It would never happen. It wouldn't matter if you are furloughed. Even on furlough you retain your seniority number. Seniority is Seniority. Like the last guy said too, you saw how fast Comair was hiring to turn around and furlough. The same can happen at Mesaba. I honestly think it could be a chess move to get guys with 1 year seniority at one airline to start over again. It buys Big Daddy D another year of low paid first year pilots. Cost savings. Delta hires some of the best bean counters around.

whoa... re read everyones post. I said he would be ahead of everyone on comairs seniority list that is currently on furlough. The guy you quoted was giving up his seniority number with comair because he is being furloughed. Then you mentioned a DOH integration. If he was to be furloughed by comair and hired by mesaba and then merged he would be ahead of anyone at comair who is still furloughed!

Go through every single ALPA merger. No one who is furloughed at time of merger is ever ahead of anyone at the other company who is currently online. Never!

I must be confused (or wrong). Correct me if I'm wrong here, but just because you are furloughed, does NOT mean you "give up" your seniority. When you are recalled, you snap back just as if you were always on property with the same seniority that you had when you left.

Getting a job with another carrier while on furlough does not force you to "give up your seniority" either. For example, getting furloughed from Comair you get hired at Mesaba. If Comair starts recalling, you have the option to return or not. If your seniority is higher at Mesaba, you probably would opt to not return. If your seniority would be higher back at Comair, you would probably opt to come back.

Again, correct me if I'm wrong, but just because you are furloughed doesn't mean you lose your seniority.

Completely false. Ask any of the comair guys going to Mesaba. Mesaba forces them to resign from any other airline. Giving up their seniority and recall rights.

Ah, I didn't realize Mesaba forces you to. However, it is still my understanding that some don't require you to.

Your right some dont.

Unless you're going from Mesa to Skywest, lateral moves do not work. Same thing just loss of 6 to 16 months of seniority, don't be fooled by upgrades. If you have more than a few months seniority, you'd be crazy to move, you're just going to have to make that up anyways. Mesaba is the place to be right now because they're the only ones hiring.

There's supposedly a bit of a gentleman's agreement with the Chief Pilot's and the furloughees. At least this is what the Chief Pilot told me in my furlough phone call before I got furloughed. He told me explicitly, "If you have to resign your seniority number to get another job, do what you have to do... I have a shredder behind my desk that will be shredding all resignation letters and you will be recalled in order of seniority." Basically, he was saying go ahead and resign but we're going to turn our head and pretend it didn't happen.

So, if you believe a chief pilot, you can have your cake and eat it too. If you're a Nov. 5th furlough, I would assume you've received that phone call by now. I received my call about 3 weeks before Oct. 5th.

FWIW, I put my application in at Mesaba and they sent an email about a week later stating they had plenty more qualified applicants than me.

I would be cautious on believing anything the chief pilot at Comair tells you...especially a "gentleman's agreement"

Well my buddy who did exactly that has QUIT on his line. So dont count on it.

That would defiantly be the best thing if you were going to be furloughed though.

Another company can require you to give up your seniority number if you accept employment. However, even the most junior furloughed Comair pilot still has his seniority number if the company is sold or merged.

He still has his seniority number but will absolutely be merged below any active mesaba or compass pilot.

I'm just the messenger and only brought it up because the discussion of this thread deals exactly with this topic.

The furlough situation at Comair is crappy all around, no doubt. I'll be the first to tell you to be skeptical of going to ANY regional at this time... including Mesaba. In fact, aviation is probably on the back burner for me until/if I get recalled by Comair. A majority of the furloughees I spoke with before leaving felt the same way. The time, the pay, the training... it's just not worth it in these uncertain times.

The only good news is: Comair was projecting to hire 400 pilots by the end of 2008 in June. It's October and look how quickly things can change in this industry... hopefully for the better.

Ok, here ya go:

12 more 900's total
5 new ones and the 7 that PNCL has from Freedom in Feb. '09
3 Saab's to be placed in ATL

...Let's see how close we are in the very near future. Don't ask for sources as you know that's not an option. A lot of folks know this now so it's not earthshattering but I guess the first time on this site.

It makes sense to furlough from one of your wholly owned so your other wholly owned can grow. After promising your first wholly owned that they would receive the planes. Delta management at its best.

I suppose it does make sense if the other wholly owned carrier is cheaper to operate. Scummy nevertheless.

Does XJ require relinquishing your number at your prior job like Compass? Just wondering....it would suck if you gave your number up at comair, went to XJ, then got merged together and ended up lower than you woulda been had you stayed on Comair's list....not that that will ever happen, just a scenario...rumor was that we had guys at 9E who freaked after the ATL announcement, went to Comair, got furloughed out of class....not sure how much truth there is to that...

Careful... who knows who will emerge post merger......but it would scare me. my boyfriend was a furloughed mesaba guy who came to comair, and chose NOT to go back when recalled bc of his QOL at Comair, not commuting, and the fact that when he was furloughed they thought Mesaba would be GONE. memphis saab FO commuting compared to CRJ in base..........I turned down an interview there, and he turned down his recall. He'd be a 900 captain. he is a 2 year FO at Comair. It sucks getting stuck on the wrong side... hidesight 20/20... I hope if u make the move there from comair it works out for u, but who knows WHERE we will all end up a year from now........

ya and Delta has told 9E that will will be keeping all those 900's from freedum... so believe what u want... but I wont be giving up my number at comair until things really happen.
I have also heard many times that mesaba will lose A/C after the merger.

15 900's for Mesaba, it's official.

Link? anything?

Dude where did you find out this information????

Its official. I hate APC!

I'm sure there will be some press release sometime if it is true. Don't get too excited and lose any sleep over it, DUDE!

What makes you think that a furloughed pilot at (X) airline would be merged under the seniority of an active pilot at (Y) should X and Y merge? Just curious. Seniority is Seniority whether or not you are furloughed, active, on medical leave, or on military leave.

DOH integration of seniority list seems to be the only way to merge to groups.

Uhhh, ok. I will. That's why I posted it. I'm not EVER going to post numbers without merit.

Whomever brainstormed a story that Mesaba would LOSE aircraft post merger "ain't so bright". I don't say that for any other reason that simple post bankruptcy economics. Delta now has a company, in Mesaba, that is now able to grow as big as scope will allow, that is wholly owned and has a contract with known costs through 2012. Plus, for whatever reason, they seem to be happy with them.

Now, I'm not going to pretend to be Nostradamus and try to figure out where Comair fits into the rationale but at present, it doesn't seem to fit at all.