Originally Posted by
SlickMachine
I'll leave out my ususal "Eff this Effing Airline" routine and comment constructively today.
Reserve at CAL sucks a whole lot.
General: All reserves must check their schedules on CCS or through phone contact with Crew Scheduling after 3pm Base Time the day before a reserve day. This means you are checking your schedule on every day off prior to beginning a block of reserve days as well as every day while on reserve. All reserves must check their schedule for additional assignments after the last leg of a pairing as follows :15 mins after block in domestic, :30 international, and at Block in for DH. Both A (long call) and B (short call) reserves get 12 days off, 8 immovable days, 4 movable. Days can be moved (rolled) on two occurances without penalty, on the third occurance (or if more than two days total have been rolled) 4:30 is added to the reserve's guarantee and then rolling may continue with no additional penalty. If you are able to trade immovable days off, those days then become movable, which is a real treat. If you are utilized for flight assignments on all 18 days of a bid period, you also get 4:30 added to your guarantee. The trip proffering window for next day open time is as follows (summary): Day before at 0900-1100 A aggressive pickup window. 1100-1200 A assignment window. 1200-1300 B aggressive pickup window. 1300-1500 B reserve assignment window.
A note on Aggresive Pickup: in order to aggresively pickup a trip, it must exactly match your calendar days of availability, except that if you are available for 4 or more days, you may pickup a 4 day trip. The trip must also not conflict with your PAW, if you have one assigned. The trip may not be picked up if it brings you to within 4:30 minutes of your monthly reserve guarntee (leveling). Aggressive pickup is first come, first serve. If you are a commuter, you will become intimately familiar with this. If you aggresive pickup a trip, that trip is no longer available to lineholder pickup. However, you are not guaranteed to keep the trip if Scheduling has other needs. You should also plan on serving (depending on the start and end times and legality) a short PAW prior to start of the pairing, typically one hour, allowing Scheduling even more opportunity to utillize you.
A Reserve: Phone available at all times on RES days, 10 hour call to push. This sounds relatively un-sucky except that: 1. guarantee is 72 hours (4 less than B reserve) and 2. Crew Scheduling can convert you from A to B reserve whenever they want (and they often do) and with no penalty until after the second occurance, at which point 1 hour is added to your guarantee for each occurance after. To summarize: you are a commuter and a 10 hour to push callout time seems acceptable. You are sitting at home in, say, Pittsburgh and are reserve in EWR. You are on your last day off prior to starting 6 days of reserve, you log in and check your schedule right at 3pm (and print your master schedule) to minimize Scheduling's window of opportunity to Eff you, and you realize that they have converted you from an A reserve to a B reserve and have given you an 0300 Phone availability window. Ouch. 3 hour callout now, and you need to get to the airport pronto, and they may repeat this situation next week with no penalty, the week after +1 hour, and the week after that for +1 hour. So essentially on the busy months, you are sitting short call reserve for 2 less hours of pay. If you read the contract, it states that An A reserve that has been converted to B will not be required to show or be phone available prior to 9am on the first day of a reserve block. This was nice until the Reserve Renegotiation LOA occured, throwing junior pilots further under the bus, and eliminating this provision in return for....... I still haven't received a straight answer on that one. 4+ years and counting.
B reserve: 3 hour callout to push. 15 hour Phone Availability Window. PAW times are assigned to set preference times in seniority order. IOW, you put in your time you would like for PAW, Scheduling is suppose to award times in seniority order. Also, if you enter a time in your Reserve Prefernce window and that time does not coincide with an actual PAW that day, then you are arbitrarily awarded a PAW- which means you have to call Scheduling and ask what the PAW's are for the day. Super Gay.
When the summer schedule kicks in, so do some of the other obscure and not-so-well-known caviats of our contract. To name a few: 24 off in 7 can occur at an international layover, including Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and Mexico. So if scheduling can put you on one of these qualifying overnights on your 6th day, away you go for another 6. This year, however, the new fatigue program is going to promote many pilots in disallowing this happy horse-puckey from happening, at least it will in my world. Double Duty periods: you get in from a redeye, or any flight landing in the morning for that matter, and are immediately released to rest to fly again that evening. Again, Fatigue program,,, can't wait. There is more but im starting to get angry, so that enough for now.
Nice review of Reserve life at CAL.
As a comparison, as a reserve at UAL
1. You can aggressively pick up open trips at 24 hrs out or 11:00 AM the day prior, whichever is earlier.
2. You can pick up a trip with your days of availability or one less.
3. Once you pick up or are assigned a trip, you are not phone available before report time. No periods of reserve availability before a report either.
4. On last day of availability, if not assigned a trip, you are released at 12:00 for long call and 15:00 for short call.
5. 14:00 rest between flights in domicile, and a 9 hours in hotel room on layovers vs. 9 or 10 hours rest in domicile and FAR rest on layovers for CAL.
6. 24 in 7 free from duty must be in domicile at UAL.
7. Aggressive pick ups at UAL are not restricted one you get close to guarantee. You can continue to pick up flying until reaching monthly cap.
8. For domestic reserves, no movable days.
9. Only a 70 hr guarantee vs. 76/72 at CAL. If given the choice, I would take the 70 hrs with the added protections.
None of these difference is earth shattering, but taken in whole, it is a huge difference in QOL and schedulers ability to abuse you. As a commuting reserve at UAL before the furlough, I was able to to fly into base on my first day of reserve rather that the previous day much more often than not. It sounds like that is mostly not an option at CAL.
By watching open flying and picking up trips, I was many times able to pick up a three day trip with a late report on the first of 4 days on. Didn't have to be phone available or sit reserve before. That's more time at home and less ability for scheduling to **** you. That same trip would usually get back to base in the evening on the third day. With 14 hours before you could be used again, the only thing you are legal for on your last day would be an afternoon turn( they can't move your days off to stick you with a longer trip). If they haven't assigned one, you are released at 12:00 for long call or 15:00 for short call, and you go home.
Obviously, it doesn't always work this well. By picking up trips or short calls aggressively, I would say that I ended up with something tolerable much more often than I was bent over by scheduling. And, as a commuter, I was home my first morning of reserve and/or my last night of reserve most of the time. I don't think I can count on that same luxury when I get my "recall/new hire opertunity" to CAL. It sounds like I will be a whipping boy on a continual basis, it was a part time problem at UAL.
B