You can submit requests to pick up trips from opentime in advance. Scheduling can also remove reserve days from your schedule, along with 3.5hrs of credit time.

You start at guarantee and get credit time for all flying you are called out for, so on months when there is a lot of flying (summer) you can make a killing. Basically, you can sit reserve the entire month, never fly, and get called out on the last day of the month for 2hrs of flying, and you'll go over guarantee for the month.

Here is other reserve stuff:

*Reserves may not be drafted to work on a scheduled day off, ie no junior assignment of reserves. Q&A section.

* Reserves will not be required to fly more than 2 hours past his last telephone availability period prior to a day off. Pg 5-3-5

*Reserves may not be assigned or reassigned to remain on duty over 12 hours (except when assigned a CDO which has a 14 hour scheduled duty limit) 5-3-2.

*Reserves must call scheduling at the end of an assignment. If scheduling has another assignment, it must be made within 30 minutes of the previous assignments block in time AND it must be reasonably expected to block out within 3 hours of the previous assignments block in time. 5-3-5

* If a reserve is assigned a trip with less than 12 hours notice, he is released from all duty until the report time. If a pilot is assigned a trip with greater than 12 hours until report time, he is released from all duty at the 12 hour prior point. If the assigned trip is removed within the 12 hour prior point, he may not be reassigned a trip with an earlier report time than the original trip, unless by mutual consent between pilot and scheduling. 5-3-6

*A pilot may not be assigned Ready Reserve prior to or after a flight assignment. The paragraph above speaks of being released from duty prior to a trip assignment. Ready reserve is considered duty.

*URPING: Per an arbitrators ruling, a reserve pilot may have a reserve period or periods removed from his schedule, and his pay will be reduced by the value of the days removed. However, the reserve period must be removed no later than 48 hours prior to the start of the reserve period. Additionally, build up line holders assigned reserve periods may not have those periods removed, they may not be Urped.