Originally Posted by
Herkflyr
Contrary to many recent posts, I see most reserves are sitting at home getting paid to grow a beard. Most widebody reserves aren't getting close to half the ALV, much less to the ALV. "Yeah but wait till summer" you say. Well, hmmm..., isn't that how things always are in this industry? Summertime flying picks up and pilots fly more? Or did I miss something?
The entire ALV+15, while I admit concessionary, isn't going to be nearly as onerous as you think, due to those pesky things called FARs. There is no way a domestic pilot is going to be flying 95 hours a month except as a statistical outlier--it certainly won't be the norm. Further, the 7 short call thing only takes effect when the new FT/DT rules are in effect, which limits any short call (domestic or international) to 14 hours.
The true reason for ALV+15 was the long 12-14 day trips flying to the Pacific that in the summertime frequently are worth 85+ hours.
Under the old contract if a pilot sicked out of one of those, not one reserve in the entire airline would be eligible to be assigned it, even if he had 15 or more continuous on call days, because you could not be assigned a trip that would cause you to exceed the ALV.
In prior eras, DAL (south) rarely had such trips, but the NWA side always did.
I do not believe it is unreasonable for the company to expect a reserve with zero hours to be assigned a published trip completely over his on call days. Any reserve in a WB category whose line started out with 18 straight on call days (which is common in such categories) should be eligible for such. Apparently the thinking on this forum disagrees.
As for "reserves are going to be slaughtered." I disagree. Reserves flying a bunch over summer?...yes, but isn't that what the airline industry is all about? At least now they have the calendar day average going for them, which applies to reserves and deadhead-only duty periods. While not perfect, now a two-day trip is always worth at least 9 hours to a reserve, where it might have only been worth four before!
Herk,
You make an interesting point, but if the intent was reserve coverage for 15-day international trips, why wasn't the ALV+15 concession limited to international categories? I surmise because DAL thought it had a domestic benefit as well.
To me, anyway, the combination of ALV+15, a seventh short call day and the 30 day bid periods in the summer months all add up to potential "reserve h*ll".
I've been on reserve when the company is short staffed and it's not fun. You're literally flying a trip, on short call or on X-days. And with reserve pilots getting different credit for the same trip - they work a lot of days.
I'm fortunate in that I'm senior enough to hold a "decent" regular line. Since last fall I've been voluntarily bidding reserve most months. However there is no way I'll bid reserve in the summer.
I realize some categories may not be getting much usage from their reserve pilots but that's decidedly not the case in mine (SLC A-320A). Just looking at the availability list for today: Five pilots available. Two in RAW group two. Two in RAW group three. One in RAW group four (and he's the most senior pilot on reserve this month, IIRC). Of the total number of short calls that could be assigned so far to this group of pilots 68% have been used. Guys aren't growing beards on reserve here...