Originally Posted by cadetdrivr

Actually, that's exactly what they are doing.

UAL is using some of the airplanes on domestic routes but those flights don't require 3 or 4 FOs so the fleets are overstaffed in the short term. That means there are more pilots than normal on reserve, but with fewer block hours combined with more pilots on reserve, the reserves are not being utilized at a normal level. So yes, there are guys at home getting paid.

Since pilots are only trained and current on one fleet type at a time it's not like UAL can have them fly A320s, for example, in the interim.

In the short term UAL will be offering reduced credit lines where pilots only receive 50 hours of pay but are OFF the entire month. For UAL it beats paying 73 hours for RSV pilots that are not used and there are pilots that are happy with reduced pay for known time off.

If this becomes a longer term problem UAL will displace pilots off those fleets but that will require lots of training ($$$) so UAL does not want to do that as the first step.

This is why everything is in limbo, nobody knows if this is short term or long term situation.