Reserve rules here are the worst I’ve heard of. 10 days off, 14 hr RAP, no long call or airport reserve. There’s virtually no way to make extra money on reserve so plan on guarantee plus a little per diem.
Trips, once you can hold a line are anywhere from turns to 6 days. From what I’ve seen most of those long trips aren’t very efficient. Lines run anywhere from as much as 18-20 days off for the most senior efficient lines to the minimum of 12 days off at right around guarantee.
The lines aren’t built for commuters, period. Even with a 4hr drive it wouldn’t be easy IMO.
Everything seems to be 10 years behind here. The contract is up in just over a year but it’s very difficult to predict with any confidence what the companies approach will be. Even with the worst contract for a 737 operator in the U.S. it doesn’t seem the company is interested in making negotiations easy, quite the contrary.
They do keep saying they want to grow. Right now they are planning to hire over 100 which would make the wait to get off reserve reasonable if you got in on the front end(6 months?).
It’s a good group here and the flying is better than the regionals IMO. That said, if I was a captain at a decent regional I’d hold out for a more stable and lucrative prospect.