Originally Posted by scambo1

I personally dont know if brutal is the right word. Since it is twice as much as domestic, unreasonable (in terms of being rested) comes to mind.

Here is what I think is reasonable:
In my category, there is a block of hours in which all the launches occur, S/Cs should cover that for commuters who couldnt make it. Then you have ramp dance issues in which the pilots on the trip can time out, S/Cs should cover that. Then you have the shortrange turnback issues, S/Cs should cover that. Once the flight is (lets say) 3 hours into the leg, I doubt that any diversion scenario is going to return to the point of departure, S/Cs shouldn't be covering that.

S/C periods start about 3 hours prior to our first sign in. Taking into account our 2 hour commute on the front end of S/C, I think that this is reasonable because we are covering the on-time departure.

So, in my category, IMO S/C could be 10 hours and that would cover 99% of all potential scenarios.

As a commuter, when I commute to S/C, I am okay with the company putting me on rest early so I can do back to back shortcalls. That way I have fewer commutes...this is far far preferable to me, (others may feel different) because what normally happens is my commuter flight lands back home and as I am driving home, I get the "you are on S/C tomorrow at 0800" call. This is where the word brutal comes in.

Commuting to reserve sucks, but in some categories, like mine, you cannot guarantee a line every month.