Originally Posted by
FlyingNasaForm
I’m a corporate pilot that lives in New Jersey. I am on call 24/7 but only “work” 10-12 days a month. Is it possible to be at home that much at UA if you consider days not used on reserve as “off days”?
I was thinking of bidding captain ASAP and sit reserve at home.
Retired AA guy here - I flew high time = high pay. But even at that it averaged around 13 days a month after subtracting vacations, sick days, displaced off of trips, etc. Average day of flying is 5:00+. Even at 800 hrs a year that's only 160 days = 13.3 days per month. Next question - who flew 800 hrs a year? Hardly anyone.
"I am on call 24/7" - no days off, no ability to plan trips/activities every single month. SW neighbor and I used to laugh whenever we saw each other at our daughters field hockey games "working all the time I guess?" and we'd laugh. Of all the dads we made more games than almost every other dad. We just prioritized those days off, or at least afternoons, in our bidding.
In hight time months I'd fly up to 20 days a month. In low time months, often on reserve, I'd fly 6 days. But at an airline you can ALWAYS get a mini vacation with the end of month changeover. Bid the end of July off and the start of August off and you have a mini summer vacation. You can do that about 6 times a year, with careful bidding, and end up with 6 KNOWN periods of time off from 7 (3 days one month, 4 days the other month) up to maybe 20 days (10/10). Obviously the longer you try to get off the harder it is to achieve AND you fly, or on reserve, a lot for the other days of the month.
The average reserve month is probably 12 days flown at AA. In the summer it's higher. Some months it's lower. Predicting which month is tougher.
W/b's tend to give you more days off (with a minimum of 3 day trips it's unusual to get assigned a trip with only 1-2 days of availability. But to get on that food chain means you'll be more junior = less control of days off, especially over holidays, less desireable vacations, etc).
On your days off - 12/13 days a month, you are O.F.F. No phone calls, no checking your schedule. You can be 1,000 miles from home and it's non of their business. That's the BIG difference in airline flying - known off days. Every month's bid award is like Christmas - what am I doing next month, what days off did I get? You can bid for days off that you'd like. Junior guys don't get all, or as many days off as they'd like, senior guys get every day off they want. Really senior guys get the destinations/flights they want AND the days off they want. It's light years different than corporate flying.