About Mesa...

inside0ut · February 20th, 2008, 22:37

I have been PMed a few times asking my experience about Mesa. I'm not trying to start a Mesa sucks thread, just my personal opinion about them. I originally typed this up in MSWord, but putting my back story in it, and all my mis-adventures along my Mesa career, it became 10 pages - single spaced

. Since I'm sure no one wants to read that much, heres alittle bit of the soft nougat center of it all. Enjoy!

My final struggle with Mesa pretty much sums up my entire career there. Remember this is my LAST 3 days and NOT THE FIRST TIME they had done this.

I had decided that my last 3 day at Mesa was going to be a fun trip. I dropped my original trip because it was horrible and picked up the new 3 day, even the last day went into my day off. It was a MHT overnight, then a CLE overnight (I loved that Hampton Inn we stayed at), with a return at 6am on Saturday to IAD, I would get to IAD at 7am and would jump the 8:15am back to Pittsburgh. I would finally get overtime pay for my last day, it would only be 1 hour but who cared.

It was the end of summer and my crew and I finally made it to ORD, dodging weather the whole way. There was more weather coming later in the day, but we were hoping to get out quickly, do ORD-IAD-CLE and be done for the day. Then the big weather started to roll into the Chicago area. We were stuck as they weren’t letting anyone come in or out. First our IAD cancelled. They told us we would fly ORD-CLE at 8pm. Ok. No problem. It was 2pm. At 3pm, we were in the United employee cafeteria and were evacuated due to tornado warnings. The tornados ended up passing within 20 miles of ORD. At 3:30pm Crew Tracking called the CA and I for a TEST FLIGHT. We asked “Are you kidding? Don’t you guys look at the weather?” to which they replied “What are you talking about?” When we told them to turn on the Weather Channel and they would see all about it, plus the fact that they suspended flights in and out of ORD they finally agreed that it would be a bad idea and scrubbed the test flight. At 6pm our CLE flight cancelled. We knew it; United knew it since they CXed it, even FlightTrac was showing it cancelled. Now, Crew Tracking is very understaffed and most times it will take almost 30 minutes to get a hold of anyone there. When they call to notify you, it’s best to answer the phone and find out what is going on. When they called, I answered. The call went something like this:

“Hello?”

“Hi, I was calling to notify you that you are on reserve (reserve? Really? Im a line holder for Christ sake!!) till 8pm when your CLE flight departs.”

“Uhhh, it’s been cancelled.”

“No, it hasn’t, we are showing ORD-CLE at 8pm.”

“I’m telling you it’s been cancelled. I’m looking at the boards right now, it says cancelled. United has it as cancelled. Hell, FlightTrac has it as cancelled. What are you going to do with my crew and I?” I was starting to get mad.

“We still have you flying this trip. There is nothing I can do about it right now; you might want to call back later.”
How was I going to call back later? I knew I’d never get through.

“Fine, someone needs to notify me of what’s up. All the hotels around here are being taken up due to displaced passengers and crews. Something needs to be done.”

“Sure it will…later. That’s not my call. Have a nice day.”

Have a nice day? Are you kidding me? I’m stuck in limbo…again. 8pm rolls around, of course the flight is CXed, maybe now they can do something. I wait for a call. I can’t get through even waiting almost an hour. 11pm rolls around, I finally get a call from Crew Tracking.

“Hello?”

“Yes I have some changes to your schedule.”

“Ok, thank you, go ahead.”

“Yes, you have an 8:45 show for a 9:30 am Madison turn, then back to IAD, finishing at 5:30pm.”

“Huh? Wait you guys haven’t even given us a hotel and its 11pm and you expect me to show in 8 hours???” I could feel the steam coming out of my ears.

“What do you mean? I show you as getting off of reserve at 8pm.” He said.

“We don’t have a hotel. I’m sitting in the crew room. You guys haven’t given us a hotel. This is ridiculous.”

“Ok, well I can give you to the hotel desk.”

I finally got through to the hotel desk and they gave us a hotel an hour away. All the other hotels were taken up by passengers and other crew members from other airlines. We shared a crew room with Shuttle and Trans-States, all who had been taken care of WAY before us. Even the Air Wisconsin guys that were there had arrangements made for them well earlier in the day. The Mesa guys were all that was left. That basically says what the company thinks of us. Almost like we are an after thought.

Upon reaching the hotel at 1am and serving a 15.5 hour duty day, we were told we still had a flight the next morning at 9am show now. We had to get a hold of the chief pilot to get the rest we were due. After all that they STILL wanted us to fly the turn in the morning. It took 5 minutes of fighting before they changed it. THEN they tried to get the CA to fly a scheduled 30/7 violation. He almost quit right there. I was done, it was like something out of a bad dream. I wish I could say I was lying. I told the Crew Tracker that I was talking to that it was actually my day off that day, and since I was WAY out of my scheduled footprint now, it was my last day, and I just wanted to be dead headed home. I had every right to refuse further flight assignments and they knew it. They came back with “Would it change your mind to fly those flights if we Junior Assigned you?” WHAT? Are you kidding me? Just dead head me home. The next day, I walked into the Chief Pilots office in ORD and actually had to stand in line to quit. There were 4 other guys in front of me waiting to turn in their manuals and plates. When it was my turn he asked me if I could just quit in IAD, he didn’t want to have to deal with all the manuals he had in his office already. I laughed and walked out. I jumped on the flight back to Pittsburgh and 2 days later was on a plane to STL to start training with Republic.

So what’s the moral to this story? STAY AWAY FROM MESA!!!!!! From Crew Trackers who don’t care, 8 days on reserve and 10 days off with a line, broken aircraft, reduced rest overnights constantly, to having to deal with an angry pilot group and having to hear EVERYONE complain about their jobs, Mesa is a horrible place to work for. If the experience isn’t bad enough, let’s break down the pay.

From my pay stubs:

4 Months on the line at Mesa = $6654.40
That’s for 310 hours of flight, and only getting paid guarantee plus Per Diem.

4 Months on the line at Republic = $9591.45
That’s for 198 hours of flight, block or better plus Per Diem.

bumflip · February 21st, 2008, 09:09

Ouch!

Thank you for posting that! I was actually considering them a while back. I usually dont make my decisions based on other's opinions, but in this industry I am finding that usually a number of opinions swayed in the same direction equals a pretty fair concensus of a given situation.

Well congratulations for landing the kob with Republic. You deserve it!

Take Care!
BUM

WalterSobchak · February 21st, 2008, 12:10

I had lunch with a Mesa crew the other day and their stories were awful. Just like this. I felt embarrassed when they asked questions about my QOL. It's like a bumb asking you how much you make(not implying they are bums by any means). I'm saying it makes you feel greatful for what you have. From what I was told the hourly pay isn't bad, but lack of trip guarantee, block or better, and other soft pay makes it much less than it is. The thing that SHOCKED me was reserve days off. 8. Yep 8 days off for reserves! 10 for line holders! Our reserves get 11. I hope for every ones sake there they get a new contract that the company follows.

OldTownPilot · February 21st, 2008, 12:39

Not to justify it or anything, but doesn't Mesa do 13, 28 day bid periods, so that would be out of 28 days instead of 30 or 31.

Of course 8*13 = 104 and 11*12 = 132.

WalterSobchak · February 21st, 2008, 12:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by OldTownPilot

Not to justify it or anything, but doesn't Mesa do 13, 28 day bid periods, so that would be out of 28 days instead of 30 or 31.

Of course 8*13 = 104 and 11*12 = 132.

We do 30. So lets say 9 in 30, that is still as bad as an over worked freight dog.

bumflip · February 21st, 2008, 14:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by WalterSobchak

...It's like a bum asking you how much you make...

How Much do you make?

LOL! I resemble that remark!

BUM

nwa757 · February 22nd, 2008, 00:03

Thanks for sharing. I felt your pain when I was at Mesa, too. Glad to be gone and working at a company that treats me right.

For anyone that left Mesa for XJT, Republic, Skywest, looks like you made the right move.

For anyone contemplating, I would recommend it more than anything in the world. Want your QOL back? Becoming LAMA is the first step.

Fly safe, and if you are fatigued, call in fatigued. It's not worth being thrown under the bus like the Go! guys are in Hawaii. If your chief gives you crap about calling in fatigued, ask them if they would like to be conference called in with the local FSDO.

pavelump · February 22nd, 2008, 23:36

Congrats on getting out.

Quote:

Originally Posted by inside0ut

At 3pm, we were in the United employee cafeteria and were evacuated due to tornado warnings. The tornados ended up passing within 20 miles of ORD.

Wasn't that fun? I was sitting on the taxiway #3 for departure on 22L when that happened.

Doug Taylor · February 23rd, 2008, 02:29

Paid by the minute!

Bog · February 23rd, 2008, 13:59

Excellent post! And some people say I was just a whiner ... complainer ... and one of the very few who had bad experiences at MAG.

I, just like you, used to live that same story every month ... or three times each month. It amazes me that people actually want to work there.

February 20th, 2008, 22:37	#1
inside0ut Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: PIT Posts: 462	About Mesa... I have been PMed a few times asking my experience about Mesa. I'm not trying to start a Mesa sucks thread, just my personal opinion about them. I originally typed this up in MSWord, but putting my back story in it, and all my mis-adventures along my Mesa career, it became 10 pages - single spaced. Since I'm sure no one wants to read that much, heres alittle bit of the soft nougat center of it all. Enjoy! My final struggle with Mesa pretty much sums up my entire career there. Remember this is my LAST 3 days and NOT THE FIRST TIME they had done this. I had decided that my last 3 day at Mesa was going to be a fun trip. I dropped my original trip because it was horrible and picked up the new 3 day, even the last day went into my day off. It was a MHT overnight, then a CLE overnight (I loved that Hampton Inn we stayed at), with a return at 6am on Saturday to IAD, I would get to IAD at 7am and would jump the 8:15am back to Pittsburgh. I would finally get overtime pay for my last day, it would only be 1 hour but who cared. It was the end of summer and my crew and I finally made it to ORD, dodging weather the whole way. There was more weather coming later in the day, but we were hoping to get out quickly, do ORD-IAD-CLE and be done for the day. Then the big weather started to roll into the Chicago area. We were stuck as they weren’t letting anyone come in or out. First our IAD cancelled. They told us we would fly ORD-CLE at 8pm. Ok. No problem. It was 2pm. At 3pm, we were in the United employee cafeteria and were evacuated due to tornado warnings. The tornados ended up passing within 20 miles of ORD. At 3:30pm Crew Tracking called the CA and I for a TEST FLIGHT. We asked “Are you kidding? Don’t you guys look at the weather?” to which they replied “What are you talking about?” When we told them to turn on the Weather Channel and they would see all about it, plus the fact that they suspended flights in and out of ORD they finally agreed that it would be a bad idea and scrubbed the test flight. At 6pm our CLE flight cancelled. We knew it; United knew it since they CXed it, even FlightTrac was showing it cancelled. Now, Crew Tracking is very understaffed and most times it will take almost 30 minutes to get a hold of anyone there. When they call to notify you, it’s best to answer the phone and find out what is going on. When they called, I answered. The call went something like this: “Hello?” “Hi, I was calling to notify you that you are on reserve (reserve? Really? Im a line holder for Christ sake!!) till 8pm when your CLE flight departs.” “Uhhh, it’s been cancelled.” “No, it hasn’t, we are showing ORD-CLE at 8pm.” “I’m telling you it’s been cancelled. I’m looking at the boards right now, it says cancelled. United has it as cancelled. Hell, FlightTrac has it as cancelled. What are you going to do with my crew and I?” I was starting to get mad. “We still have you flying this trip. There is nothing I can do about it right now; you might want to call back later.” How was I going to call back later? I knew I’d never get through. “Fine, someone needs to notify me of what’s up. All the hotels around here are being taken up due to displaced passengers and crews. Something needs to be done.” “Sure it will…later. That’s not my call. Have a nice day.” Have a nice day? Are you kidding me? I’m stuck in limbo…again. 8pm rolls around, of course the flight is CXed, maybe now they can do something. I wait for a call. I can’t get through even waiting almost an hour. 11pm rolls around, I finally get a call from Crew Tracking. “Hello?” “Yes I have some changes to your schedule.” “Ok, thank you, go ahead.” “Yes, you have an 8:45 show for a 9:30 am Madison turn, then back to IAD, finishing at 5:30pm.” “Huh? Wait you guys haven’t even given us a hotel and its 11pm and you expect me to show in 8 hours???” I could feel the steam coming out of my ears. “What do you mean? I show you as getting off of reserve at 8pm.” He said. “We don’t have a hotel. I’m sitting in the crew room. You guys haven’t given us a hotel. This is ridiculous.” “Ok, well I can give you to the hotel desk.” I finally got through to the hotel desk and they gave us a hotel an hour away. All the other hotels were taken up by passengers and other crew members from other airlines. We shared a crew room with Shuttle and Trans-States, all who had been taken care of WAY before us. Even the Air Wisconsin guys that were there had arrangements made for them well earlier in the day. The Mesa guys were all that was left. That basically says what the company thinks of us. Almost like we are an after thought. Upon reaching the hotel at 1am and serving a 15.5 hour duty day, we were told we still had a flight the next morning at 9am show now. We had to get a hold of the chief pilot to get the rest we were due. After all that they STILL wanted us to fly the turn in the morning. It took 5 minutes of fighting before they changed it. THEN they tried to get the CA to fly a scheduled 30/7 violation. He almost quit right there. I was done, it was like something out of a bad dream. I wish I could say I was lying. I told the Crew Tracker that I was talking to that it was actually my day off that day, and since I was WAY out of my scheduled footprint now, it was my last day, and I just wanted to be dead headed home. I had every right to refuse further flight assignments and they knew it. They came back with “Would it change your mind to fly those flights if we Junior Assigned you?” WHAT? Are you kidding me? Just dead head me home. The next day, I walked into the Chief Pilots office in ORD and actually had to stand in line to quit. There were 4 other guys in front of me waiting to turn in their manuals and plates. When it was my turn he asked me if I could just quit in IAD, he didn’t want to have to deal with all the manuals he had in his office already. I laughed and walked out. I jumped on the flight back to Pittsburgh and 2 days later was on a plane to STL to start training with Republic. So what’s the moral to this story? STAY AWAY FROM MESA!!!!!! From Crew Trackers who don’t care, 8 days on reserve and 10 days off with a line, broken aircraft, reduced rest overnights constantly, to having to deal with an angry pilot group and having to hear EVERYONE complain about their jobs, Mesa is a horrible place to work for. If the experience isn’t bad enough, let’s break down the pay. From my pay stubs: 4 Months on the line at Mesa = $6654.40 That’s for 310 hours of flight, and only getting paid guarantee plus Per Diem. 4 Months on the line at Republic = $9591.45 That’s for 198 hours of flight, block or better plus Per Diem.

February 21st, 2008, 09:09	#2
bumflip Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Frisco, TX Posts: 314	Re: About Mesa... Ouch! Thank you for posting that! I was actually considering them a while back. I usually dont make my decisions based on other's opinions, but in this industry I am finding that usually a number of opinions swayed in the same direction equals a pretty fair concensus of a given situation. Well congratulations for landing the kob with Republic. You deserve it! Take Care! BUM

February 21st, 2008, 12:39	#4
OldTownPilot Old Skool Join Date: May 2005 Location: BGR (Bangor, ME) Posts: 2,923 Blog Entries: 4	Re: About Mesa... Not to justify it or anything, but doesn't Mesa do 13, 28 day bid periods, so that would be out of 28 days instead of 30 or 31. Of course 813 = 104 and 1112 = 132. __________________ As a wise man said, sumb!tch flew in, sumb!tch'll fly out. Ski Hard. Party Harder.

February 22nd, 2008, 00:03	#7
nwa757 Junior Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 75	Re: About Mesa... Thanks for sharing. I felt your pain when I was at Mesa, too. Glad to be gone and working at a company that treats me right. For anyone that left Mesa for XJT, Republic, Skywest, looks like you made the right move. For anyone contemplating, I would recommend it more than anything in the world. Want your QOL back? Becoming LAMA is the first step. Fly safe, and if you are fatigued, call in fatigued. It's not worth being thrown under the bus like the Go! guys are in Hawaii. If your chief gives you crap about calling in fatigued, ask them if they would like to be conference called in with the local FSDO.

February 23rd, 2008, 02:29	#9
Doug Taylor Agent Smith Join Date: Dec 1969 Location: KSDL Posts: 40,430 Blog Entries: 1	Re: About Mesa... Paid by the minute! __________________ Doug Taylor http://76school.flyblog.com (old!) http://30west.flyblog.com (updated 11/28)

February 21st, 2008, 12:10	#3
WalterSobchak Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 539	Re: About Mesa... I had lunch with a Mesa crew the other day and their stories were awful. Just like this. I felt embarrassed when they asked questions about my QOL. It's like a bumb asking you how much you make(not implying they are bums by any means). I'm saying it makes you feel greatful for what you have. From what I was told the hourly pay isn't bad, but lack of trip guarantee, block or better, and other soft pay makes it much less than it is. The thing that SHOCKED me was reserve days off. 8. Yep 8 days off for reserves! 10 for line holders! Our reserves get 11. I hope for every ones sake there they get a new contract that the company follows. __________________ 4 forces of flight: Stall, Spin, Crash, & Burn

February 23rd, 2008, 13:59	#10
Bog Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Gilbert, AZ Posts: 1,164	Re: About Mesa... Excellent post! And some people say I was just a whiner ... complainer ... and one of the very few who had bad experiences at MAG. I, just like you, used to live that same story every month ... or three times each month. It amazes me that people actually want to work there.

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