Didn't see this addressed for the ERJ side, but life on reserve is a joke. One long, infuriating, stupid, not terribly funny joke and "F&#@ your life is the punch line!"

-Rolled days off are pretty standard, at least one per month. You start with 11 or 12 days off (depends on the month) so loosing one or two of those really sucks. Per the contract, the company is supposed to restore them but they haven't been. Group grievance filed, still waiting for my days off back.

-You will see this company waste ridiculous amounts of money through their own inefficiency and sheer incompetence. And when you try to point out an error or a better solution, all you will get is blow back and "Atlantitude". Then they push an insulting TA across the table and tell you that YOU are the problem. YGTBSM.

-Your knowledge of the contract, your contractual rights and the FARs will be continually tested. It seems the company now looks at contractual limits and FARs as goals rather than absolute limits. In addition, as of late it seems they view their contractual obligations and your contractual rights as "grey areas" to be complied with when convenient.

-Yes. You will fly. They will fly the pants off you. Till you drop. And then wonder why fatigue calls are way up (I'd be happy to sit down and clue you in after I finish my 5-day reserve cluster of a trip...oh wait, my day just got rolled!) So if you want to fly as much as possible, have no fear! You will fly till you puke. Then be expected to get the plane back to the hub. (Disclaimer: This has been the norm for about the last 4 months, which I know have been rough for everyone due to this historic stint of bad weather.)

-Some months you will get a 4-day every block of reserve days, some months it will be a turn or a quick overnight but it seems no matter what, you will fly most days on-call. We have an aggressive pick-up system which is nice for those that want to fly.

-Reserve bidding is by PBS. It seems OK...so far, jury is still out though. I am fairly senior as far as reserves go and pretty regularly am able to hold the days off and call-out period that I want. Your mileage may very as a junior reserve, but the good news is that on the FO side, reserve seems to be less than a year.

Hope this provides some insight. Maybe staffing is tighter on the ERJ side than the CRJ but this seems to be par for the course since the merger. As I said, your mileage may vary.