Well after watching this I guess I will come out of lurking and post. You know you didn't have a problem flying the RJ for XJT during the explosive growth from a small regional to 274 aircraft while CAL Mainline shrunk. Amazing, as soon as you get on the other side of the fence everyone flying an RJ has SJS. Please explain why it was okay for you to do this and gain experience needed to move on but you place other pilots in such a dim light. Me thinks one needs to go take a long look in the mirror.

I think this merger rumor has been blown out of proportion. Compass doesn't have HDQ in MSP... only Mesaba does. HOWEVER what is also headquartered in MSP and just opened brand new offices is MCHoldings. Basically NWA created MCHoldings to oversee the wholly owned regional partners Mesaba and Compass. One day all the payroll, finance, IT, accounting etc... worked for Mesaba, the next day they worked for MCH. This holdings company now runs most of the back of the house activities for Compass and Mesaba. The new offices are conveniently located in the same building as the Mesaba GO and training center. They're literally across the hall.

It would only make sense that after the merger Comair, Compass and Mesaba would be held under one umbrella... the new DCI so to speak. I bet the Comair folks were up here to deal with something that would have to do with the future of the wholly owned carriers. A full blown merger? Doubtful... there would be no more whipsaw capabilities! But a merger of much of the behind the scenes activity... very possible.

I'll agree with that. That sounds more like a possibility. I'm sure it involved the operations execs from all three carriers. I did hear that he main entity in charge of all three will be down in ATL.

Can someone explain to me why two wholly owned subsidiaries by two companies, that are already merging, would even bother merging?

Ahhh now that's why he's making random rants

This is just like Politics. Nothing gets done by pointing fingers at one another. We are all to blame for the problems in this industry. The problems started with mainline companies giving up scope. It also is in part because of people like ALL of us who dont fight TOGETHER to increase pay across the board. Labeling people by their companies or business sector only builds road blocks to combined negotiations that could benefit us ALL.

I disagree, that doesnt have much to do with the argument. All airlines, regional and mainline have lower first year pay unfortunately regardless of the planes. Even UPS and FedEx have lower first year pay scales. I think we can all agree first year pay SHOULDN'T be low at any airline just because you are "new".

Would you accept a position flying for a mainline carrier if it meant 30k first year? Would you prefer all flying be at the mainline level if it meant All of our longevity's started at an earlier point? If all flying was at the mainline level NONE of us would have to take big pay cuts to "improve" our careers as we would have started our Career longevity once we started at the bottom. Just a thought.

H46bubba - While mama D will be based in ATL, I tend to think MCHoldings or the new DCI will be based in MSP. Not only are there the brand new MCH offices and the Mesaba Go (where Compass uses some areas) and the Mesaba training center (where Compass uses some areas) NWA and the new D have to make the politicos and folks in MN happy. They're losing a fortune 500 company that employs more than 10,000 people in the state. Many of those jobs will leave to go to ATL. To make them happy they can have the new DCI hdq in MSP as well as much of the training. Just a thought.

Well, I for one, do not at all agree with your statement that first year pay should be low because you're "new". It is fair enough that it is "lower", but it shouldn't be poverty level low (ala NWA, or any regional) because we are all professionals, and should not need food stamps just to afford our jobs. First year pay is not low because a pilot is "new". First year pay is low because enough pilots think it should be low (no one like a pilot to throw another under the bus), and by the time a guy has a voice to do something about it, the first year is over for him, and said guy then merely thinks: "well, I had to live through it, and it won't help me to fix it now".

This is the kind of thinking which is killing our profession. For the record, I'm probably just as guilty of it as the next guy.

I am a supporter of ALPA, but I believe that allowing sh!tty first year pay is one of the big failings of ALPA. I know that there is an effort to come up with basic minimal contract standards, and I pray that cr@p@ss first year pay will be one of the problems fixed. If we believe that first year pilots are so worthless, on what basis can we claim that all of a sudden second year, or third year, or tenth year pilots are valuable professionals who must be treated with respect?

It is to our absolute detriment to devalue any subset of professional airline pilots. NO 121 pilot (or any other intensively paid professional) should have to get food assistance to feed his or her family.

I corrected my post, I meant for it to say SHOULDN'T not should. Thats why i put new in Quotes to show my distaste for the low pay. thanks for pointing that out and i agree with your post. carry on