Originally Posted by
nene
True that a reserve pilot cannot just pick up open time on days off. As a reserve, a green slip can be awarded (in seniority order, with the caveat that once you had one, you go to the back of the line for #2 etc) on your days off, but a reserve gets the straight value of that trip over and above guarantee and the next future on call days converted to days off unless there are no more on call days in which case you get "pay back" days to drop trips in future months.
"Rolling thunder" requires a pretty undermanned category for a given month and is an anomaly, not a regularity.
The thing that makes Delta different from AK is that Delta has many bases and aircraft types, so a temporary manning issue can develop as the pilots are much less interchangeable than when nearly everyone is qualified for every trip.
I get that. This month I'm on reserve by choice and when I didn't get used for 3 rsv days and had 5 days off, I was able to go into open time and add a 2-day trip and a 1-day trip on my 5 days off, driving reserve from 79 hr guarantee to 96 hrs credit. And the way I justify it living in base is I wasn't used on the 3 rsv days and was home anyway, felt that I was basically off, and now going to actually go to work 3 days on days off for extra money.
I've asked around buddies at other airlines, not all of them can you just pick up straight open time on reserve days off for extra pay - at any time you want. They seem to have caveats for only premium - like Delta.
It's one really good thing we have on reserve at AS.