This may be an option for some but it will be very situation dependent. We still do have other contractual protections in place to limit duty day, especially within the critical period.

I spent a few years on reserve. If I was getting regularly assigned to the typical am hub turn, I much preferred clicking on a notification at ~1000 am the day prior. Then I could attempt to plan my sleep and possibly get a decent amount of it prior to waking up for the 0230 show time. The alternative was to play dumb and avoid VIPs which would set me up for a 0001L phone call from CRS to notify me of the trip I had been assigned 14 hours earlier. Personally, I'll take the extra 1.5 hours of sleep.

This is all new, so I'll readily admit I may be off base. However, I'm having a hard time seeing a scenario where a reserve pilot gets assigned a trip "well past NW + 16". We still sit reserve for only 12 hours right? So, unless an A reserve actually has his RP changed, his trip has to show between 0130L and 1330L. Clicking on a crew notification doesn't change that. It sounds like all that does is remove the Whitlow rule from the equation, so the time from NW start at 0000L to show time wouldn't count as duty. He's still got a 10:30 operational duty limit for a critical period domestic hub turn.

As far as the VIPS computer notification question: One of the VPs came in and talked with our F/O class during ITU. He actually logged in and showed us how they can track everything we do there.