Some rules that will surprise in comparison to any other airline, including regionals, greatly affecting QOL:

- No fixed callout period for the month. They will change it day to day. Today you're in the late callout period to cover the redeye so you sleep as late as you can. They call at 6pm releasing you to 9 hours of rest to a new 3am callout period. You can't sleep again of course and of course they call at 3am and assign you a Whitlow duty day. Or worse they assign you the 3am callout so you go to sleep early the night before then they call at 6am after you're totally rested and release you to 9 hours of rest to fly the redeye that night. It wrecks your sleep cycle. The circadian cycle does not exist.

- Little limit to moving your work days. There are 8 days off that are untouchable. All other days off are soft and they can move work onto these days with no limit. You may have a work block that is 3 days long, followed by 2 soft days off. At the end of the 3 day trip they will "roll" your days off and assign you work on what were days off. They will keep doing this until they hit a legal limit of some kind.

- The FAR 24-hour break in 7 days of work can be given downline. So you can start out on a 3-day trip and be out much longer, with your 24-hour break in an exotic locale, not at home. [UAL's break "in domicile" is a contractual provision that isn't in CAL's contract][also, the new FAA rest reg requires 30 hours (vs 24) off per 7 day lookback "in domicile"--will be a big change at CAL]

- Because of this unlimited flexibility you are obligated to check your schedule for changes each day at 1500 before a work block begins, even though this is a day off. Since there is no set callout period for the month you can't just enjoy your days off and turn your phone on when your callout period starts. They can assign you a trip which you have to check for and checkin for on your day off. It's like being on call on your day off since you are obligated to check. This also applies to each day you're on call. You have to check each day at 1500 even if it during the 9 hours of rest because they can and will change your callout period day by day. There is no predictability. It's like they're calling audibles to you during a 2-minute drill, except it's not for just 2 minutes.

- Long call can be converted to short call at any time and with no limit, so it's nearly useless. Aside from the fact that they assign trips to long calls before short calls, once they run out of short call reserves they'll call a long call reserve and assign them to short call. If you're a commuter instead of commuting in for a trip you'll be commuting in to sit short call at a hotel at your expense. This can done without limit. Since long call is only a 9-hour callout it can be unworkable as a commuter anyway. A 10pm call to show up at 7am? Not a lot of flights operating between those hours for a commute.

This isn't meant to be a Debbie Downer, but it is the reality of QOL. You truly fly to FAR limits round the clock. There are some, very few, two (?) abuses which can result in extra pay, but they won't pay unless you make a claim, and even then the claim has to be made with certain narrow windows of time on the 24 hour clock or else it will be denied. Unreal, but true. Even though UCAL is an "IT company with planes" (their characterization) apparently they're not techie enough to comply with federal law of paying for work performed. The new rest rules should have some affect on making life better on reserve.