No they don’t. I was previously employed at SkyWest. No standby ready reserve unless you’re given an assignment prior to the airport standby per the new TA ratified last Fall.

For example: you have a 4 day reserve bucket, they assign you a 4 day trip, day 4 is one leg back to your home base in the morning, they would sometimes add an Airport Standby block for a few hours. I was never given an assignment during that small block. I would go grab a coffee and watch the morning departures, then go home.

You’re correct about the misery of sitting standby at the airport for 8 hours. I received a few of those assignments during my employment at SkyWest before the TA. On paper it doesn’t look that bad, bring a computer and get some work done while getting compensated. It’s almost the same as being at home on short call right? Yeah no thanks, after a few hours it felt like a prison sentence.