Originally Posted by
rabbo
Are Envoy FOs across the fleet/bases sitting reserve for a long period of time? Some say yes, some say no but it's not always quantified. I understand "it depends." Are we talking 3 months, 6 months, 12+? What aircraft (As a 31 year old RTP it sounds like I would not have much of a choice, if my class were even offered a choice)? I would be looking at ORD or LGA.
Just looking for best guesses here as I have a couple of options available and I would prefer to not commute to reserve for half a year or more when there are other places I could hold a line much quicker.
You're going to be hired into the 145 in either ORD or LGA, depending on which particular stars have lined up in the cosmos the week of your start of Indoc. Unless you get lucky. You won't though.
As far as reserve goes..
In Chicago, the most senior reserve pilots seem to be NOV/DEC 2017 hires, although they probably held a line for some of the summer months when more lines were around to be had.
In New York, I'm seeing DOH of FEB/MAR of 2017. Same deal.
Going forward..
According to an email sent to us by management, in Chicago lines are supposed to increase to ~120 hard lines in March, that means 15 more people off reserve this spring. Looking further, they're predicting ~145 lines by June.
Every 3 months there's a Vacancy Bid which allows pilots to shuffle bases and equipment (FOs cannot change aircraft without upgrading to CA). These will throw predictions off, and are impossible (for me) to predict.
Long story short, don't commute on reserve. You WILL hate it here. The flow isn't worth it. There's better places to work based on reserve rules alone.