Originally Posted by
tomgoodman
The story goes that way, way back, reserves were called in seniority order, and could decline the trip. Then crew sched called the next-most-senior reserve, and so on until somebody took it or the bottom guy had to take it. Senior guys would bid reserve and stay home until they got bored enough to fly a trip.
If true, that was probably in the '50s or '60s, when bases were small and trips were few.
Gosh, I want to say CAL still had this system recently. not 100% sure. but I do remember a certain 777B at the Blocked Inn in EWR telling the company to go you know what itself when called for a DH to CDG to replace an FO and get a plane back. He just didnt know it was a DH on the Concorde. Someone pointed that out and he called back but that trip was long gone.