I don't understand the "how long to hold reserve on the..." questions. Reserve is what you do as a new hire until you are senior enough to get a schedule. This is true for all bases and equipment. A more useful question would be "how long will I be on reserve on the...." That answer is different for every jet and every base, but as of now coastal bases are 8-10 months while the other bases are a bit longer. WB tends towards years on reserve, but EWR 777 can get a schedule within a few months. This answer expires in 60 days. A year ago EWR 737 FO was just a few months. Now it's 8-9 months.


You can bid CA after a year. There are unfilled NB CA positions at most bases today. However, a year from now there *should* be a new contract, the effects of opening MCO and LAS will be known, and China should have opened back up. If the new contract fixes reserve rules and bumps NB CA pay all the senior WB & NB FOs will pile into NB CA and upgrades will go back to being measured in years. If you haven't been hired yet, you will likely have to wait longer than a year to be a CA, and that's a good thing.


Asking when you can hold WB CA won't get you a useful answer. It's measured in decades. I don't see any post-merger (2010) hires that are 777 or 787 CAs.