Originally Posted by
AltoCumulus
For the benefit of those that aren't here yet or are new, under the Alaska contract you have 12 days off that start 4 hours after the end of your zone. You get a 5 day block a 3 day block and 2 - 2 day blocks on every reserve line. The company may not EVER encroach on your 5 or 3 day block and may encroach on one of your two day blocks.
If they do encroach one of your two days off, YOU have the option of either getting paid 150% or having the day off restored. Once they encroach in one of your 2 day blocks, they cannot encroach on the other one.
If you have not been assigned by 4 hours prior to the end of your RAP you are automatically released if you are going into days off.
Virgin America: You were off at midnight...as long as they didn't need you. You could still be made to fly, albeit at 150%.
So at VX you start your zone at 1630 and you are off at midnight...if they didn't call you. But they could call you...so this is not a guaranteed start of a day off but an automatic-release. Not the same thing.
If you REALLY want to improve reserve...
Shorten the zones -- VX had 8 hour zones, I think that is a good starting point.
Bid for days offs and zones - "PBS" for reserve. You shouldn't have to sacrifice your days off for your zone, or your zone for your days off. You should be able to exercise your seniority and bid for both.
Stop the practice of extending reserves. Once you are on a trip, a reserve pilot should be operating under the same rules as everybody else. At the end of your trip you should get your 12 hours off and then be assigned per the "assignment of open-flying" section of the contract. You should not be reassignable at the whim of scheduling.
Guaranteed calendar days off? Show me something workable that I can get behind. Midnight is just an arbitrary line on the clock, why assume that it is best for everybody?
Close but, reserves don’t get “days” off; they get blocks of 24 hour periods. 48,72 etc. Also, your day off doesn’t begin until 5 hours after your RAP ends and there is no premium compensation until you fly 1 hour beyond the 5 hours. So only if your 48 hour block is ground down to 42 hours do you receive anything. You also don’t get released 4 hours early before a 48 hour block.
so let's say that you were able to negotiate "calendar day" off language and plop it in our contract. All that would happen is the company would simply adjust the zones. Our late zone would be 1000-0000 and our early zone would start at 0000-1400. It would effectively be the same amount of time off for any reserve pilot. The contractual - "rearranging chairs on the Titanic."
Besides allegiant most airlines have complex schedules in which they fly the backside of the clock and still have better language than us. The ones with shortcall RAPs have redeye reserves that can legally fly red eyes, unlike your 1000-0000 and 0000-1400 zones, while still enjoying the same definition of a calendar day as the rest of the world. Just like you described at VX.
I think VX had really good reserve language and would gladly adopt most of it over ours. I think most of us would take almost any reserve language over ours
If you are interested, someone posted a folder with most of the major airline contracts on our internal forum. That’s where I found the JetBlue info.