There is no way to sugarcoat how bad commuting to reserve at SWA is. It's terrible. I did it for 18 months and it made me give serious consideration to quitting and trying another profession.

You have two options, AM or PM reserve. It's basically pick your poison and depends on your personal preference. AM you have to commute in the day before and your rap starts at around 3am local. PM you can typically fly in the same day you start your block and the rap starts around 11am.

AM reserve will have you flying mostly front side of the clock with soul crushing early reports. The last day is key, though, because you are typically not used or released very early in the day and are home for dinner.

PM reserve will be delays, reroutes, and lots of late nights. You will typically have to stay in the base on the last day of the block unless you go unused and then you can self release around 6pm and head home.

All of that being said, once you start a trip, they can and will "RAP flip" you and have you flying a trip completely opposite of your AM/PM body clock. They do this by deadheading you to the overnight city at the beginning of your RAP and then starting you early the next day and vice versa with AM to PM. Your only line of defense is a fatigue call, which most probies are hesitant to do. You will also fly with all of the avoidance bid a holes on reserve.

Used to be, reserve was pretty short lived, about 6 months or so. Right now, it's trending a lot higher than that and that is making it painful for those who have to endure it.