Originally Posted by
shiznit
According to the PWA, a schedule check must be accomplished NLT 0200 so you could report or begin a short call within 3 hours... or 0500 for you military types.
The company would have some real difficulty if reserves waited until 0159 before acknowledging a schedule, effectively making them only able to accept a noon start on the first day. The unpredictability would be a lot to manage.
So just don't assign anything earlier than noon on day one, problem solved. 5am shows on day one with pilots starting lunchtime commutes on a golden day to get in position are ridiculous anyway. Hiding behind saying "commuting is a choice" ignores the bedrock reality of the industry in general and company in particular; most pilots at most airlines are commuters. Not only that, pilots commuting save the company tons of money by not forcing their hand paying for moves everytime some antsy marketing middle manager pushes things around the chessboard in search of that YoY RASM bump by any means necessary causing periods of massive self induced churn.
This is no crisis for the company that a slight staffing increase and a little foresight can't fix. That we may get some much needed reserve QOL improvements out of it is just icing on the cake.