Originally Posted by
Scoop
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.
Something to keep in mind is that it's the top 50% of line holders (in holiday months) who are protected, not just top 50% in category. Also, as said above, reserves get no such protections which means in most categories, only 1 or 2 reserves are protected from coverage. Weirdly enough, it doesn't necessarily mean it will be the most senior protected either. It's an odd situation but it occasionally happens that the senior reserve pilot gets coverage and someone junior does not. PWA 12.M.5 is the reference for the reserve coverage and it's one of the more terrible parts of our contract.