Big Perm

Can someone shed some light on the reserve rules around here. I start soon and have heard little.
11 hour long call.
2 hour short call.
18 days a month.

How many of the 18 days are short v long call?
How many hours are you on the hook when on short call?
No short call from the airport (standby style) right?
Standard to get four day blocks?
Can you pickup an extra reserve day for extra pay?

Help me fill in the blanks....

Thank you in advance.

FlyAK

Welcome to the airline...

You either bid a “long call” line or a “short call” line. You cannot be forced into a long call line unless you bid it.

Long call lines pay 75 hours/Short call pays 79 hours... plus anything over the guarantee.

Long call is from midnight to midnight. You have 11 hours once they call you. Essentially they are putting you into rest when they call you. Long call lines are generally the first to be used. You can self assign if you’d like, ie if there is a 3-day you’d like to do, you can put it on your line the day ahead of time. You can be converted to short call at any point, the catch is they have to pay you two hours the first time they do it and one hour each time thereafter.

Short call lines have a 2 hour call out to report time, 3 hours to push time.

You are correct that there is no “airport standby.”

On either style line you’ll get one 5-day block off, one 3 day block off, and 2 two day blocks off...

I forget what else you wanted to know, but hopefully that will get you started. Welcome to the airline, keep your eyes open and you’ll learn lots!

ImperialxRat

Just to add to the previous post which had a lot of good info:

The days off are not "days off", they're blocks of hours off. I say this because sometimes they don't line up with calendar days depending on your RAP period.

Also long call being converted to short call can only happen 4 times a month unless you give them permission to do it more.

Trips can be picked up on "days off" and paid above guarantee but can only be picked up from open time, not pilot to pilot.

If you call in sick on reserve is uses less sick time than I originally thought.. I can't remember how many hours one reserve day is off the top of my head but I suggest looking it up.

For short call you have your RAP (Reserve Availability Period).. 14 hours long.

Weekend reserves will get used much more than weekday reserves.

Mudhen200

All reserve lines get 12 days off.
All pilots accrue 5:30 of sick leave per month.
A sick day while on reserve costs 2:50 per day.
Hypothetically, if a guy were to call in sick for two days in a month, he has used :10 out of his sick bank.
In other words, all reserve lines can be 14 days off for the rock bottom price of :10 out of your sick leave bank... just sayin...

Also, don't forget to bid so as to create a day 7 conflict during the month to month transition. That can pay nice dividends from time to time as well. Sometimes they forget to properly notify you and if played correctly can produce 2 more days off for the month!

You have to answer the phone for the full 14 hours of your RAP.
You can be worked (and will be) for up to 16 hours.

They can call you at the start of your RAP, wake you up in the early AM, and tell you that they are putting you into rest, so you can work late into that night. This is legal but it is stupid. Let me get this straight... You wake me up at 0500, after I've had a good nights rest of 7-8 hours. Now you want me to simply go back to sleep and bang out some more rest so you can fly me until about midnight tonight. Just stupid, but it happens. So, if you are fit that evening, then fly. If you are not, then just call in fatigued. Fortunately, this doesn't happen to often.

The best little reserve nugget in our contract is that any RAP that starts prior to 1000 can not be placed into rest (scenario above) and flown into WOCL (0200-0400) on your first duty period. They can, as described above, place you into rest and work you till 11 pm or midnight or even 1 AM, but they can't work you into WOCL. This is a good thing for those of us who refuse to do WOCL flying in general. Simply bid a RAP that starts before 1000 and you will never do a first duty period WOCL flight.

Generally speaking, QOL for reserves in ANC, LAX and PDX is good. Pulling reserve in SEA is bad. Always has been, always will be. It's a function of the base's size (more things can go wrong) and the fact that line holders can never trade so they just call in sick to get the days off they need.

lowflying

You can't drop reserve days but you can trade them around if there is sufficient coverage. Typically, on the FO side, SEA is the only base with sufficient coverage.

Also, once you hit guarantee on reserve a sick day doesn't' cost anything from you sick bank.

Lots of room for improvement in the reserve rules.....

Big Perm

Awesome info guys. Thanks for posting.
What would you guess the average number of days used on reserve as a new guy is in Seattle? 12 days in a non peak month and maybe 15 during summer? Does junior manning happen much? Is there a volunteer to fly or bypass option on reserve?

ImperialxRat

I don't know the answer to the first or second question you asked. In crew access the day before your reserve day (I think it is before 1pm) you can select a reserve preference of want an assignment or do not want an assignment or no preference. And you do for each day you're on reserve... or don't do it at all like many people When you pull up the reserve list for a particular day and see that Y or N on some people, that is what that means.

AltoCumulus

There is no junior manning at Alaska. What is sometimes called Junior Manning...is voluntary so is thus...not junior manning.

Big Perm

Anyone want to take a stab at how many days per month you actually get utilized on reserve in Seattle?

pete2800

If I remember right, there were usually 1-3 days per month I didn't get used.

LAX averaged around 50% when I was there.