Originally Posted by FlexNinja

All of this is true. As a 1st year FO at a regional, I had Halloween, my birthday, my kids birthdays, Christmas and New Years OFF. I could have had thanksgiving, but I needed the following week off for something else. I dont think any other 1st year FO's can say they had the same.

Also, as it relates to Reserve days. When you get your reserve line, you will typically have 3-5 day stretches of reserve duty, with 2-3 days off between. It really just depends on the line. Well, when the seniority based and first come first serve comes out, you can go in an swap your reserve days around. There is one major restriction to that, and that is the reserve grid people keep talking about. The reserve grid must be green in order to move a reserve day. Its really not a big deal though. Typically, I would just stalk the grid and the second that day when green, id swap out of it and bam, good to go. I could run a 6 day stretch of reserve and easily have 6-7 days off. I was very impressed with that ability and it came to the rescue several times when I was on reserve. I went straight from short call to a round 1, so then life got REAL good. Now, instead of 11 days off, I routinely have 16-18 days off and still credit over 70hrs most months. If I feel like picking up more flying, I do it as SDO (Scheduled day off) and its 125%, plus, I can pick up flying out of base, for an easier commute.

I will say, the only thing I didnt know going into SAP, is that you cant SAP between the bases. You can seniority based and FCFS, but you have to have a green reserve grid, and honestly in 5 months, thats only worked out once. But, like I said, I can drop my line down to 65hrs and come back and pick up better trips in other bases that are easily commutable. I dont think any other regional offers anything even close to that level of flexibility.

edit: Oh, and as he mentioned above, ive had almost every weekend off since I got the round1 line.