The bottom line (coming from a Mesa pilot) of this thread:
Do yourselves a favor (and trust me, this will be the best advice you'll ever get)...DON'T come to Mesa. Here are just a few examples why, and some comparisons between Mesa and other carriers (i.e. defined as "ELSEWHERE")
MESA:
- You don't get paid SQUAT for cancellations. Spare me the 97% controllable completion BS. They'll do whatever they can to ensure that you won't be paid. On average, I miss 8-10 hours of pay every month due to this. It's criminal.
ELSEWHERE:
You DO get paid for cancellations.
MESA:
No block-or-better. It's so nice to sit for an hour waiting for T/O and not get paid a cent for it. And time in the penalty box in ORD, or getting de-iced? NADA! You get paid for the time it "historically" takes to go from here to there. Absolutely ludicrous. I probably lose 5-8 hours to this every month.
ELSEWHERE:
You DO get block-or-better (or something equivalent)
MESA:
1/2 pay on deadheads. What crap!
ELSEWHERE:
Majority pay full credit for deadheads.
MESA:
No work rules/duty rigs. Lets hypothetically say that you've got a credit block of 7.3 hours that day...maybe 5 legs. The first leg is cancelled due to WX (so you get nothing). The second leg is obviously cancelled (again, you get nothing). The third leg requires a repo flight from CLT to ROW. It takes you 4.3 hours to get there, but since there's no "historical time" from CLT-ROW, crew tracking just randomly choses to pay you 2.7 hours for the flight. The remainder of your 5 legs have been dropped, but you get to deadhead from ROW to PHX, and then back to CLT. I'm not sure what the time is to fly ROW-PHX-CLT, but let's say it's around 5 hours. Of that 5 hours, you get 2.5. By the time it's said and done, you're at 17:13 duty day when you get back to CLT, and got paid a fraction of your time.
ELSEWHERE:
You get paid what you should. You're paid protected for your credit time. If your line was credited at 91 hours that month, you get AT LEAST that. At Mesa, if your line is worth 91 hours, count on minimum monthly guarantee...70 hours.
MESA:
ZERO ability for line improvements. The company does everything in its power to ensure that trips are not commutable. Typical report times are 0615...typical release times are 2106. You can try to trade/drop trips for commutability, but it's in vein. Crew scheduling hates you for being a pilot, and will do NOTHING to accomodate you.
ELSEWHERE:
Full ability to drop/trade trips and make adjustments to your line. Potential for making a non-commutable line a FULLY commutable line. Crew scheduling realizes you are a human being, and treats you like one.
MESA:
You're working for a CEO that's a convicted criminal. He has brainwashed all other departments in the company (scheduling, payroll, etc) that you are a whining pilot that's overpaid for his/her job. He will do everything in his power to ensure that you're stripped of every right you deserve, and hopes that your tenure with the company is short-lived.
ELSEWHERE:
Management isn't JO, nor are convicted criminals. Enough said.
MESA:
You'll be on reserve. That reserve will automatically turn into ready reserve. You'll be at the airport for 8-12 hours...sitting, and sitting, and sitting. Crew scheduling will beat you like a baby seal. Your life will be miserable.
ELSEWHERE:
Ready reserve doesn't exist. Even if you're on reserve in domicile, and are a commuter sitting in a crashpad, you're on call...able to lead a normal life.
I could go on and on with regards to the differences between Mesa and other carriers. However, it makes me depressed to do so. I came here naive to just how bad it is, and am paying the punishment for my actions. Hopefully this will serve as an reason for anyone considering Mesa to not do so.
...and now I'm going to play in traffic