When I went threw at Mesa they said 8 + 1 or 2. It seems most of wash out was after the oral. In the paper tiger portion, with people not picking up the flows or the profiles. Thought that was over a year ago. I could not tell you what is going on now. It seems everything has changed for the worst.

Go-jet is 9 sims with 3 extra being the max.

At Mesa, I've known of a person getting to redo the entire sim portion, but this is extremely rare.
Think we do two sim zero's now?
Talk of the worst training departments... How about the best? The Mesa instructors are the ones that keep this place going with blood, sweat, and tears. For a new hire, you couldn't ask for a more welcoming, nurturing environment, especially for those with only part 91 experience. The guys from other 121's and 135's will find the experience very chill.
With that said, if you have no business flying an airliner, you will not pass Mesa's training. However, many of our failures have found their way to other regionals and are successful. Perhaps they needed that initial experience to kick their attitude and focus in the right direction.

Sweat is part of any productive training environment, but blood and tears?

Really?

I've been through many 121 (and 135) Training events. Lots of sweat.... but never any tears... and certainly no blood.

Has JO turned into the vampire he was always thought to be?

Figure of speech. I don't think JO has anything to do with daily operations, he is the big idea guy and figure head. His underlings are the ones penny pinching.

Fixed it for ya

Sounds like every training program I've ever been through in some way or another.

His logic assumes the instructors are the ones to blame. Your logic by supporting him is that the instructors are to blame. How about, as the student, you do your job and study and be ready to pass. Not ONE regional has a 100% fail rate. That means that a vast majority of students pass without any issues. That means that those guys try really really hard and totally dedicate themselves to the program. That means they're professional pilots. How about we get that mentality in set straight in our minds. Work hard, do your job and pass the course like MOST people do.

I don't think there's any "worst" initial FO, although I'm sure some are better than others.
I would certainly nominate PDT for the most inefficient trophy, still lots of guys and gals getting months of paid vacation waiting for sim slots. For a lazy bum like me, that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Well aren't you just full of expectation bias and projection? He made no such statement and neither did I. (Because I think training departments differ does not mean that I think failure of pilots is necessarily the departments fault) It is a simple fact that some departments will have higher quality than others and systemic negative results are usually signs of systemic problems. This is true of nearly every business. There's nothing wrong with looking in to an organization before joining, in fact it shows wisdom. Obviously a bad student should wash out, no one doubts that. Yet airline training departments are not all the same. Let me give you an example with two regionals: At airline #1, they forgot to have a classroom, instructor, or manuals prepared. Then the ground class was hurried and what was taught in the class was different than in the procedures trainer, and that- inconsistent with the sims, and the sim inconsistent with the manual. For the oral and check-ride, successful students got the gouge of the examiner ahead of time so as to know what version to give them personally. At Airline #2 the department was well prepared and consistent throughout. Bring the required aptitudes, study hard with your classmates, and learn the SOP and you did fine. These two departments were very different and were I an applicant I'd consider many things including the quality of training before going somewhere.