I think the bottom line on SC's is exactly as you guys suggested: they give you a bunch, because they can. And they're glad they can, because they prefer it. A SC Reserve is more available and more useful to the company. This is particularly true in an international category, with the [deleted] 24-hour SC.

If the contract allows X SC's a month, expect to sit that number. Anything less than that number is probably some sort of a slip-up, or a conservative guess: they have to spread SC's throughout the month, so they don't want to burn them needlessly. So they end up a little under. That's it. Anything less than the max number of SC per month falls under the category of wishful thinking, because any number less than the max means the company is failing to maximize their contractually alloweable number of SC.

If you consider that SC are a company benefit under the contract, you just need to accept the fact they're going to try to tap that (and you). And the best way to make sure you're even more useful to them, is to start with a SC on day one.

I think there are a lot of things that can still be improved on Reserve, including daily credit equality, but I'm under no illusion about the program: it's designed to have me 1) flying, or 2) ready to fly on SC, except when on X-days.

Another point to consider: it's going to get worse. With up to 2 additional days off per month in the low season, people will get to stay home two days, but that distributes the flying across fewer pilots that are not off. That makes it even more likely that one will sit on SC and/or fly. And then, when SC goes from 24 hours to 12, we will get even more. Adding a 7th day of SC is not an academic consideration: We will sit an extra day on SC.

If we consider that the company sees a LC the way they see credit (rig) time, then we understand how SC works. Their purpose is to reduce the number of times you're hanging out on LC, and zero LC is their holy grail.