To answer the question have I sat reserve?
1 year reserve as 727FE and commuter
6 months reserve on the DC10FE as commuter
5 years on and off reserve as MD11FO LAX not commuting, best deal ever and why LAX was so senior
1 year reserve on and off MD11CA ANC commuting
2 years reserve 777CA Mem commuting
in the last 13 years was either reserve or VTO for 12 of it. So yes I know how crappy it can be. I could have stayed senior as an FO but was my choice to bid to the left seat.
So I know how bad our reserve system sucks and especially the VTO system. Total POS! So yes things need to be fixed. However saying that we need to get to industry standard doesn’t really apply. If we want industry standard we gen we would be under full PBS and no lines. Our vacation days would only pay 4.5 hours and we would have less days.
Even back when I was a junior MD Capt I would take off almost 3 months with vacation and spend it down in the Caribbean or Bahamas. Only pay I lost was per diem and international override. My Delta friends would join me and have a hard time getting off more than ten days and they only got paid 3.5 hours per day of vacation. They couldn’t believe our vacation system.
So be careful throwing around industry standard, because some industry standard things would be a major setback for us.
As to United have multiple show times for reserves. United has probably 5+ banks of departures a 24 hours. We have two some days one. See a difference there? Apples to oranges.