I was assigned a long call trip, out of inverse seniority order, with the same days of availability grouping. Scheduling said seniority is not a factor in RUO "reserve utilization order". I was surprised that a search of the contract seems to confirm their assertion.
Scheduling also said they assigned the trip to the junior pilot within the same days of availability because he was on Short call today, and giving him the trip tomorrow would basically make his short call today meaningless. I thought that seniority was a factor that determined assignments as long as everyone was within the same days of availability grouping (which we were). We were both 5 days available group 1. Our only difference was I am senior, and he has short call today ad his first day on call.

I want to make sure I understand this because it affects the efficiency for the company if they are allowed to assign trips in the order that best preserves the needs of scheduling. I like it when a long call assignment for tomorrow deems today's short call worthless. Can they really avoid this within the same days available group?