Originally Posted by
Viperstick
Thanks Sunvox, just trying to get a feel for the water given the upcoming vacancy bids coming this fall. I ran the math and I'm working 16-18 days/month as a 320 line holder to make the same money I'd make as a reserve on wide body. Figured if I could steal a few days off while sitting long call, I come out ahead.
Had a 787 reserve dude jumpseating a couple of weeks ago to Denver & he made it sound like wide body reserve was a much different animal from narrow body. Sounded like QOL might be better as you can steal days off easier than narrow body. The impression I'm getting here is the company is doing the same thing across all fleets--handing out short calls to everyone.
I now commute from Nashville, so ORD/EWR are preferred for commuting purposes. IAH has too much competition with the RJ guys & frequency to IAD isn't good.
And you summed up short call. I recently filed a PDR over short call. I had a nice email exchange with a systems schedule committee/crew desk rep. I'm narrow body on 320. Yes the short call abuse is rampant and from the unions perspective, this was never envisioned for short call. The company consistently runs a 10am short call your first day on reserve and several others after this simply to get you on the short leash in the domicile. And as many others have said(to include my own personal experiences) they consistently release you early only to put you on another short call assignment the next day. It's all legal and quite convenient for the crew desk. I actually had a discussion with a crew desk supervisor about the rabid use of short calls. His response, "we're short pilots so we use short call."
And they love to do a 0200 or 0300 your last day as well. When there's no flying or less(as there is now) the SC's are every where. They're even doing field standby's with all the SC. All legal. Something I hope we can change. The problem, so few on reserve that it's hard to get momentum in large numbers to change this.
Good luck on your future bid.