Originally Posted by
beech2jet
Is there any opportunity for reserves to aggressively pickup trips out of base? Like if someone lives on the west coast, can they call scheduling the day before they start reserve in an east coast base and request to pickup a trip out of LAX?
Not really. I (and apparently half of the EWR base) live in ORD and commute to EWR. I have tried that many times. They will break trips into pieces and give it to the remaining pilots in base first before even consider letting someone from another base pick it up.
I was told by the supervisor that they are under high pressure to keep the flying in-base in order to know how many pilots each base requires - If they constantly fall short, they add more vacancies. By giving trips to someone who is not based there, they are artificially showing proper staffing and preventing more vacancies.