The following is based on experience and memory - as was pointed out previously, I failed PWA 101.

If as a reserve Pilot, if you are subject to coverage over Christmas it will not slide. I think you have it covered with a ESN bid group. FWIW - recently I have been seeing a lot of coverage awards go much more senior with reserves than with line holders. In other words Pilots could have held certain days off as a line holder but get coverage as a reserve. As long as you are trying both you will maximize your chance for success.

The PWA limit to coverage cutoff is the bottom 50% of line holders. So if you are in the top 50% of line-holders you should be safe. Hypothetically speaking if there are 130 Pilots in a category that has 100 lines any Pilot not in the top 50 in category is subject to stacking. I believe it does not matter if you bid reserve or a line - not in the top 50 Pilots keep your fingers crossed.

What is confusing is they can go right up to the 50% pilot as a reserve and have very little coverage as line holder since the trips are spread out more evenly. This is very evident for non holiday month weekends - which most reserves want off resulting in plenty of coverage awards. Christmas will probably have more even coverage since many line holders and reserve alike bid for this off.

Finally it will be interesting to see how holiday pay plays into the coverage awards.

Scoop