I agree that categories should be manned correctly. There should be a penalty to the company (perhaps PB days paid to all in category) any time all days of a bid month aren’t initially awarded via PBS with adequate reserve coverage.

As far as not allowing reserves to cover other bases...I am a little sympathetic to the needs of the operation. We do need some shock absorbers for IROP or irregularities that are unbalanced across the system. And commuting Reserve pilots probably prefer deadheads on the front and/or end of a rotation, from which they can deviate. I see two fixes that could help - deadheads on the front or back of a reserve rotation shall be pay/no credit (paid above guarantee, but dh credit still accumulates for RAW), and out of base reserve coverage shall be awarded with 24 hours minimum notice.

Add those to short call credit pay above guarantee and UAL’s DH language and I think reserve will be just about perfect.