Have you looked at the SFO staffing for January? Im guessing not.
36% reserve on the Captain side....81 reserve lines. Doesnt look much better for Feb either. Bid results come out on the 10th.

 

I only receive the Boeing bases. Do you see airbus & Boeing? Maybe it has to do with the painting and cabin reconfigurations in a slower month? ANC isn’t too far off that %. Soon enough we should all be on the same page. 🍻

 

Oh, the irony.

 

Haha I’ll be the first to admit I know nothing about the Virgin side of the operation.

 

So this makes a little more sense now. We have a terminology problem. What you are describing is not a "day off", what you are describing is mandatory release language. Yes - I would agree that there is room for improvement. This kind of miscommunication is why I am pushing for those on here to propose specific fixes so we can discuss them...not just yell from your keyboard about generic "IMPROVEMENTS!"

For the benefit of those that aren't here yet or are new, under the Alaska contract you have 12 days off that start 4 hours after the end of your zone. You get a 5 day block a 3 day block and 2 - 2 day blocks on every reserve line. The company may not EVER encroach on your 5 or 3 day block and may encroach on one of your two day blocks.

If they do encroach one of your two days off, YOU have the option of either getting paid 150% or having the day off restored. Once they encroach in one of your 2 day blocks, they cannot encroach on the other one.

If you have not been assigned by 4 hours prior to the end of your RAP you are automatically released if you are going into days off.

The two examples offered here are what JetBlue has and what Virgin had. Just because I don't understand the obsession with "calendar day" off language, does not mean I don't think there is room for improvement in the reserve section of our contract.

JetBlue - I am taking the poster at his word that they bid for zones on a daily basis. Sorry, I am not willing to take that bullet. Perhaps we can negotiate to include some lines that start with a late zone and progress to an early zone that people can bid on...but for an across the board "bid for your zone everyday" change, I think most pilots would consider that a non-starter.

Virgin America: You were off at midnight...as long as they didn't need you. You could still be made to fly, albeit at 150%.

So at VX you start your zone at 1630 and you are off at midnight...if they didn't call you. But they could call you...so this is not a guaranteed start of a day off but an automatic-release. Not the same thing.

So let's say that you were able to negotiate "calendar day" off language and plop it in our contract. All that would happen is the company would simply adjust the zones. Our late zone would be 1000-0000 and our early zone would start at 0000-1400. It would effectively be the same amount of time off for any reserve pilot. The contractual - "rearranging chairs on the Titanic."

If you REALLY want to improve reserve...

Shorten the zones -- VX had 8 hour zones, I think that is a good starting point.

Bid for days offs and zones - "PBS" for reserve. You shouldn't have to sacrifice your days off for your zone, or your zone for your days off. You should be able to exercise your seniority and bid for both.

Stop the practice of extending reserves. Once you are on a trip, a reserve pilot should be operating under the same rules as everybody else. At the end of your trip you should get your 12 hours off and then be assigned per the "assignment of open-flying" section of the contract. You should not be reassignable at the whim of scheduling.

More days off on reserve - we should AT LEAST have 13 days off during a 31 day month. We shouldn't be working for free one day every-other month.

Guaranteed calendar days off? Show me something workable that I can get behind. Midnight is just an arbitrary line on the clock, why assume that it is best for everybody?

 

Sounds like a great argument for PBS across the board. All I see with line bidding is sacrifices, that senior people can rectify with step trading but that junior people are stuck living with. You're right, we should be able to bid for both days off AND the kind of trips we fly.

 

Close but, reserves don’t get “days” off; they get blocks of 24 hour periods. 48,72 etc. Also, your day off doesn’t begin until 5 hours after your RAP ends and there is no premium compensation until you fly 1 hour beyond the 5 hours. So only if your 48 hour block is ground down to 42 hours do you receive anything. You also don’t get released 4 hours early before a 48 hour block.

Besides allegiant most airlines have complex schedules in which they fly the backside of the clock and still have better language than us. The ones with shortcall RAPs have redeye reserves that can legally fly red eyes, unlike your 1000-0000 and 0000-1400 zones, while still enjoying the same definition of a calendar day as the rest of the world. Just like you described at VX.

I think VX had really good reserve language and would gladly adopt most of it over ours. I think most of us would take almost any reserve language over ours

If you are interested, someone posted a folder with most of the major airline contracts on our internal forum. That’s where I found the JetBlue info.

 

Accurate for all bases as a pilot at Alaskan airways.

Pros: not the absolute worst place to work if you live in base

Cons: absolute worst place to work if you don’t live in base. Hostile management hates commuters, terrible reserve rules, archaic bidding system with all benefits of line bidding given up for nothing in return, stagnant growth are a few of the reasons to name a few.

Do yourself a favor, call your regional back and see if you can take back your resignation until a major or legacy airline calls you for a job? No point to jump into another regional with no future.

 

"If you have not been assigned by 4 hours prior to the end of your RAP you are automatically released if you are going into days off."

This is not correct.

If you are going into Vacation, Block of 3 off, Block of 5 off, or they have already worked you into one of your Blocks of 2 off, then you can self release 4 hours prior to the end of your RAP.

I called them once, 6 hours prior to going into my block of 5 off to see if they would release me so that I could enjoy an afternoon beer with my bride. They said no... I asked for 2 hours of grace and they said no... what in the hell could they have possibly done with me?

I do like your suggestion on bidding specific days off in a RAP. I also agree that we need more guaranteed days off per month. I firmly believe that we need shorter RAPS. This 14 hour RAP, easily and often extended to 16 hours is stupid.

Zone flops (call you in AM and tell you that you are going back into rest and will be flying until 0159 that night) happen from time to time but are easily dealt with later that day with a fatigue call, assuming you couldn't get proper rest since you just woke up... Who on God's green earth could possibly think that telling someone who just woke up from 8 hours of sleep to go back to sleep so they can fly late into the night is a reasonable and safe thing to ask?

I also agree that the add on stuff gets old. I've been assigned a 2 day that turned into a 3 day that turned into a 4 day that turned into a 5 day that would have turned into a 6 day except that I tapped out and called in fatigued on day 5.
I will say that I have never been worked into a day off. I know it does happen, but it is rare and therefore not something I worry about. If it were to happen, a fatigue call would probably get you home sooner and hopefully solve any personal problems or conflicts.

 

You have hours off, not days off, and for those who commute it's going to suck fairly significantly.

I agree, I wouldn't want to know my reserve window for tomorrow by a phone call today from scheduling.

Yes, that's how reserve used to be at VX. LSEF, late state early finish rsv lines (pre 117). Day 1 was a PM day starting at 5pm and day 5 would finish as a AM day by 2pm.

Depends if the next day is a Virgin Day Off (VDO). We get 3 VDOs in non-flex months and 2 in flex months. Put a VDO after every stretch of reserve window (the first day off) to be left alone. With VDOs they can't force you to work into day off (very rare exceptions do exist), but for the most part would force someone else to work who forgot to put a VDO.

As a transcon commuter (for the couple months before getting the NY VB), I bid PM lines to be able to come in on day 1 and start the 4pm to midnight shift. The last day was also 4pm to midnight, and with a Virgin Day off after, as long as just the redeyes were left you could call to be released. I was released as early as 7-8pm to make redeyes home. Even a 10-11pm, redeye home. But with good success, I was always able to call them and switch myself to an AM or MID by the last day and be done earlier and take a flight that got me home the same night as the last day of reserve.


Only the PM shift is 8 hrs from 4pm to midnight. AM and MID shifts are both 11 hrs, 3am-2pm and 9am-8pm respectively.

Agreed!

Agreed x2. VX gets 13 calendar days off regardless of 30 or 31 day month. I would have liked to have seen one more day off for reserves as part of the scheduling improvement MOU but obviously that didn't happen because the company didn't budge.



If I'm gonna move all the way across the country, I sure as well better be driving to work. Not everyone at VX can move though as everyone's situation is unique. I'm planning to move if the VB isn't extended.