CA1900

Terrific, thanks guys!

Rsv4lyfe

How many people went to Puyallup last year to speak with Alaska? Looks like a couple CPs will be meeting Friday, will those same guys be at the conference on Saturday and Sunday?

FL410

There were a hundreds of people last year. Expect the same for this year.

Rsv4lyfe

How's life on reserve?

Do you have to call to get released after a trip? How are the schedulers? Does long call go senior? How do they assign trips in open time? % of pilots on reserve by seat and base? Is it decent to be on reserve at Alaska vs. other places? (Rsv sucks everywhere)

Timwerni

Anyone out there with Alaska know of anyone getting hired below the FW flight time mins? I'm military with 3000 hrs but 1300 of them are stinky helo hours...the other are mostly MEJ ~ 1200 MEJ with ~ 660 MEJ PIC....would I potentially get a look?

Thrill

We have a bunch of twirly bird types here. You have to meet the min's though, or the system will boot your app.


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Thrill

RSV isn't lasting as long as it used to, particularly outside of SEA.
No call required.
Schedulers are great for the most part, but we have a mix of some newbies and our "2%" Just like everyone else does
Living in base? RSV is no big deal. Some guys still bid it even 8 plus years on property.
Pilots on RSV?....not enough.



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F15Cricket

To add to what Thrill wrote ... I finished ground school end of Sept, OE was first half of Oct, I was able to bid for a reserve line in Nov (got the reserve line I wanted, plus was able to do what we call "trade with self" to move some days off ... Ended up with 4 days off over Thanksgiving!).

I had a line in Dec, in Jan and now for Feb!

So, I can't answer much about reserve.

But, I did have a couple of trips from reserve that was a DeadHead back, so I called scheduling when I landed, got released, and immediately came back home rather than going to the hotel for 12 hours before flying back. (dead Head is considered duty, so you need crew rest. When I flew back earlier, I was actually flying in a space available category rather than getting a positive space Dead Head seat.)

My experience with the schedulers is they are nice, willing to work with you, professional and personable. However, I am a nice guy and nice to them on the phone.

Long call is something you cannot be assigned but you have to bid for it. I don't know how senior it goes, but one of my classmates in SEA could not get long call for her first couple of months. Another of my classmates that lives in SEA but was based up here in ANC got LC right away, and waited in SEA for the call for a trip. So, it seems to vary greatly based upon what base you are in. Btw, I am ANC based (and want to be, since I live here), so things here move more quickly than the other bases, except LAX maybe. I am already at about 75% on the ANC FO seniority!

Open time is available for pilots with a line to pick up or trade. Pilots on short call cannot pick up open time but they can preference trips (or preference that they generically want to fly, or even that they don't want to fly). This is done daily for the next day's reserve schedule. LC reserves can, I believe, pick up an open time trip but only if it matches their number of days left on reserve (I.e., pick up a 3 day trip if they are on LC reserve for the next 3 days). LC can be less desirable for some, though, because you are on call 24 hours of the day, whereas SC is a 14 hour block per day. On SC, then, you have some awareness that after a certain point in your zone, it is highly unlikely that you would be called. In Nov, I was on the 1730-0730 reserve shift, and based on our flight schedule, I knew it was unlikely for me to get called after midnight.

Also, you can set up your crew schedule on your iPhone calendar, and when I was on reserve, I noticed my trip added to my calendar about mid day. It gave me more awareness that I had a trip that night.

So, in summary, if you are on reserve in base, not too bad. If you are commuting to reserve, there are some things that can make it a little better. But, if you come to the great white north, you will likely only be on reserve for a month or two, or unless none of the lines tickle your fancy.

Packrat

Idle bragging, Cricket!

However, your point is valid. If you live in ANC or can stomach the commute, you'll get base seniority faster than anywhere else on the system.

Long call reserve would work well for commuters.

F15Cricket

... And the best flying! This month has been southeast, an easy lower 48 trip to PHX, a HNL trip, and a couple of arctic turns--a great variety and fun flying! (Who else gets to hand-fly a 737 on a VFR leg?!

And for those who can't take ANC (you know, those folks who like damp, dreary winters [SEA and PDX], and huge cities with lots of traffic [SEA, PDX, LAX]), there is lots of movement, so being "forced" to ANC will probably only last a couple of months until you can get to the lower 48 base of your choice ... to sit reserve!

I chatted with a SEA FO who has been on property a year and still can't routinely hold an open flying line .... That's ok, leave ANC for me!