Let's consider that we advising someone debating making Southwest a career choice that will last decades. There was a a short period in the recent past (that I took full advantage of), where reserves didn't fly. Looking back even further, reserves flew every day, and that is basically the situation now. Just watch the bidding behavior of senior FOs, you don't see that many sitting reserve these days...

So good advice to someone coming to Southwest...plan on flying on reserve. There are some good pints about working here, but just like if you want to fly a 777, if you want to sit reserve in base and not fly, this isn't the airline for you.