KDENPilot

Maybe you geniuses need to realize that FedEx ISN'T like the passenger airlines. Delta, American, United, etc don't have last minute extra sections due to excess volume or nearly as many equipment swaps. They also don't reroute flights too often to pick up extra passengers, nor do they "sweep" a nearly empty flight through a city to pick up passengers stranded on a broken flight. In other words, although we may fly similar equipment to the same airports, our operation is NOTHING, repeat, NOTHING like some of the other carriers who have supposedly these great reserve systems.

To address your laundry list of complaints above, let's put it in perspective.

1. Soft R-days. Do they suck? Sure, but it's 1 day, and they can only do it once per month. No big deal, especially since they can only do it for the purpose of assigning a trip. They can't just move the day for the sake of moving a day. At some companies, they actually have junior manning, where they can make you come out and fly whether you want to or not.

2. R-day values? A non-issue, you're still getting min guarantee. Whether it's normal min guarantee or 4A2B min guarantee is a debate for a different thread.

3. Secondary lines getting assigned reserve? Don't bid a secondary line, and if that's all you can hold, too bad. That means you're junior, suck it up and deal with it.

4. R24 hotel standby is not a big deal, at that point you're on an assigned pairing receiving company paid hotel, per diem and leveling. Treat is as though you're on a trip and quit whining about it. Reserve wasn't meant to be stood somewhere outside of your base, and I'm saying this as a commuter who occasionally bids reserve by choice (Normally, I'm not too picky on my line, but occasionally I need certain days off in a month, and bidding reserve usually lets me get them.)

5. The company just implemented real time viewing of your reserve leveling a couple of months ago and it seems to work fine. Whenever an assignment is made, it updates right away, although you might have to hit the refresh button on your browser to see the change.

6. As far as staging/no harm privileges, well that's one area that could be improved, but it kind of makes sense on why they don't have it. We don't let line holding guys jumpseat in and immediately turn to a long international duty period. Since a reserve doesn't know what, if any assignment, he's going to get, it's a way to make sure that we don't have him doing something that we wouldn't want a line holder doing. Granted, most reserves don't have to worry about being sent on a trip to NRT, but I don't think we want to have different rules for different reserves. Sorry if you have to come into base a little bit earlier, but again, it's no big deal. Just leave home a half day, or whole day earlier. Oh, and please spare me the complaint about having to spend another day away from home. I commute too, and if I can do it, you can too. If being away from home for extended periods of time is a problem or you, then you're not cut out to be a pilot. Do the world a favor and find a new career.

7. F/Os always getting stuck with checkrides. So what? If you're doing it by the book and doing it right, then what's the problem? No, you probably won't be able to sneak a nap on the AM outbound (which is a good thing,) but checkrides just aren't that bad. I actually look forward to having a LCA onboard. Maybe that's because I did the check airman thing for a while at the regional level, or maybe it's because I wouldn't mind being an LCA here in the future (someday I'll be able to hold MD captain.) Either way, I actually kind of like having an LCA on board.

8. The company has complete control over the schedule of a reserve, and you can't move or drop r-days. Well, duh, that's the idea. The reserves are there to cover open trips and any last minute stuff that comes up, so it makes sense that the company should have control. Nothing wrong with requesting to move/drop days, but if they say no, then live with it. After all, you were the one who bid the line. If you're junior and got stuck with a crappy lline, well again, too bad. Suck it up and move on.

It never ceases to amaze me the amount of whining, crying and complaining about how bad we have it here at FedEx. WE DONT!!!!!!! Is there stuff that needs to be fixed or could be better, yes, but it's all minor stuff in the big scheme of things. Instead of being miserable on the job and griping about it on the internet, how about going all out, move the boxes, be nice to all the people from other departments you meet and just generally have fun with the job. Makes for a much more pleasant way to go through life. Even after 9 years, this is still the easiest, most enjoyable job I've ever had, as a pilot or otherwise. That's been the case no matter whether I've been on reserve over Christmas, or whether I've managed to luck out and score a sweet international trip.