And then they let Captains pick up FO trips at time and a half, essentially paying them somewhere around 6 times what they would have to pay a new hire. Continental uses and abuses their reserves. We should take their misery as a lesson for our contract negotiations.

Speaking of Continental, their work rules and schedules are inferior to ours, but one thing they have over us that I would like to see in our next contract for reserves is the ability to aggressively pick up a trip. Here at Delta we put in a yellow slip request, and then they may or may not even look at the trip we are requesting. At Continental the long call pick up window I believe starts at 11 am and once they have that trip for the next day they have no further obligation until that check in time. The short call agressive pick up window then starts at noon, but their short calls are still given a call period, but once they pick it up it is on their schedule, like a line holder picking up a trip, rather than a request to scheduling like we have.