Originally Posted by
gloopy
36-42 additional guaranteed days a year off for reserves is a pretty nice advantage. Most of the airline commutes and as reserve is correlated with juniority (not a straight line relationship but fairly similar) most who commute on reserve benefit very little with mid reserve stint long calls where they weren't used after the fact compared to an extra 36-42 days off a year, guaranteed.
And that's best case when we have fat categories. When we're lean on staffing and reserves are always flying, our current system is even worse.
For every guy sitting long call at home there is someone sitting long call at the hotel or pad and even if they aren't eventually used I doubt very much that *most* reserve pilots benefit more from the current system than having an extra 36-42 guaranteed days a year off.
The arguement for SWA's shortcall and greater days off should not be done in a vacume. If the arguement is FOR the whole SWA contract, there goes along with it other "benefits" like premium pay out of some open time, higher credit for days, fewer plane changes, reserve access to open time, etc. SWA PAYS for efficiency.
There is no arguement FOR 14 days of shortcall without the rest of the package - including their scope clause.
As has been pointed out, DAL reserve can be pretty painful if the category is shortmanned. If you haven't experienced that, you will at some point if you are on reserve. DAL can make it so you get NO days on the lake except your laundry days between trip pieces while you dont break guarantee.