Scheduling
 

What is the time to hold a line in SEA, ANC, SFO, LAX.

What does a typical junior line look like SEA/ANC in particular? (Overnights, block, credit)

As an FO on reserve, can I expect to be used often? (Spent almost 2 years at my regional not being used on reserve, so I am ready to get to work!)


if you have anything else scheduling related that you would like to mention, please do!

if you want to work you can pick up trips on reserve and they’ll give ‘em to you. Pick em all up I enjoy flying 7-8 days a month on reserve.

1) So far me and my classmates are 8 months in and nowhere close to a hard line; I think I was about 70 spots from the complete bottom hard line. One could argue we are getting closer to open flying lines but they are garbage because of a 3rd step trading process just implemented for hard line holders. This means that hard line holders got another round of trading and bidding and all that's basically left over are primarily red eye flying lines. Not mad about it, seniority is king and it is what it is. The bottom just got a little more rough for us down here. We have, in fact, gone backwards in seniority in SEA because of airbus transitions.
2) Typical lines are hard to quantify with 3 rounds of trading so they all look completely different after the fact.
3) Yes, in SEA, you will work every day, every time. Reserves are essentially ran like line pilots with a lot less days off.
4) It won't matter how many people you have under you while you're not a hard line holder; reserve doesn't factor any kind of seniority unless there's a tie with a flying preference. Reserves are run completely on utilization. That's why you'll rarely see a handful of senior people ever bid reserve because its not a good time. :)

While I'll be off to the widget soon myself, these have been the best crews I've ever flown with. Great team environment and I've enjoyed the flying while I'm out there. The positives of flying this much on reserve is that you'll get good at the plane and the operation very quickly which has its advantages and I have really liked feeling highly proficient at a new gig.

Going to piggy back off this post.

What is PDX looking like seniority-wise for an FO? How long to be able to bid reserve there, and how long until one could hold a line?

Excuse my "no-121 time" ignorance.

been on property over a year and still a ways off from a line. Reserve in PDX is pretty chill. Nowhere near the amount of redeyes and if you’re called in to do actual PDX flying it’s usually an easy transcon to BOS, JFK, MCO, or EWR. I’d say most the time you’re used as a spare in other bases. DH’s to SEA or SFO last month was common. I just bid to avoid any potential red eye and all nighter flying and I’m flying 10 or less days a month outside of March which was more busy.

Can you expand on this? are reserves able to bid preferences to type of flying or bid for open time pairings? im a PDX hopeful...

In ANC I’m struggling to consolidate on RES. May is the first time I’ve had long call though.

How long until you could get reserve in PDX? Again, apologize for my ignorance - no 121 flying in my past. If I were to finish up IOE at AS, living in PDX, what might that look like? Commuting to sit reserve elsewhere?

you’re able to pick up open time trips if they fit into your reserve window so if you’re starting a five day block and there’s a three day trip that you like you can pick it up in crew access and scheduling will approve it and you now know what trip you’ll be flying. You can bid PLC (long call) or one of the short call blocks. You can also put in preferences YES or NO for being given trips. This doesn’t hold much weight as there’s other factors that come in prior to them considering that.

To get awarded PDX is pretty quick. Probably could get it within the first bid that comes out for you. In base reserve is very easy. If you’re short call it’s 2.5 hours min call out so you have plenty of time. PLC is 18 hours. Usually if they give me a trip it’s the day or night before I start my reserve block so I have plenty of heads up. If you’re living in PDX and based in SEA or LAX initially you would be better off bidding PLC just so you have the extra flexibility to commute to base for the start of a trip.

PLC is 14 hours.

We can all wish we had Delta’s contract.

I'll take our true 14 hour call out over Deltas 10am start day one carvout. 2pm makes day one commutable from nearly anywhere. 10hr callout day one ruins the whole point of LC.

ah my bad I don’t ever bid it so that’s my mistake for the bad info.

Tell me you don’t know what you’re talking about without telling me you don’t know what you’re talking about.

Anything to add other than the attack? I admit I haven't read their CBA. I was told day 1 they can get a 10am start vs our 2pm guarantee. Soon all of our pilots will have the ability to guarantee LC with a true 14hr callout 2pm start day 1.

Had a Delta jumpseater to SEA and the stuff he said was completely surprising.

So on reserve, I asked him if you can pick up a regular pay trip on days off for extra pay? He said no, at straight pay the trip would count towards your monthly bucket (so you time out sooner) but the pay would not go above guarantee.

I asked how you get extra pay on reserve days off? He said it's only with green slips (the premium 200% or 150, I forget). And that green slips are bid in seniority order so as time gets near to the trip, if a senior guy has a request in for the green slip on that trip, then you don't get it.

So if you are one of these 12 month street CAs, can you get green slips approved? He said unlikely.


That's a complete 180 from what I thought Delta had. I thought at Delta you could pick up a 2-day trip at regular pay any time out of the opentime pot and get paid on top of guarantee, and they had to remove 2 reserve days later in the month - a rolling thunder. Apparently, this was completely not the case.

- If a Reserve pilot is assigned a rotation with more than 18 hours to report, they are
released from availability up to 24 hours prior their assigned rotation’s report time.
- 1st day earliest rotation report is 18 hours after the pilot begins their first on-call day
- A rotation may be assigned that reports as early as 10 hours after the pilot begins their
first on-call day (same as current practice), if such rotation is assigned at least 12 hours
prior to the end of the pilot’s last non-fly day(Currently, only 9 hours is required)

So, no 10 hour callout the first day but you can definitely start your first day at 10am.

True that a reserve pilot cannot just pick up open time on days off. As a reserve, a green slip can be awarded (in seniority order, with the caveat that once you had one, you go to the back of the line for #2 etc) on your days off, but a reserve gets the straight value of that trip over and above guarantee and the next future on call days converted to days off unless there are no more on call days in which case you get "pay back" days to drop trips in future months.

"Rolling thunder" requires a pretty undermanned category for a given month and is an anomaly, not a regularity.

The thing that makes Delta different from AK is that Delta has many bases and aircraft types, so a temporary manning issue can develop as the pilots are much less interchangeable than when nearly everyone is qualified for every trip.

I get that. This month I'm on reserve by choice and when I didn't get used for 3 rsv days and had 5 days off, I was able to go into open time and add a 2-day trip and a 1-day trip on my 5 days off, driving reserve from 79 hr guarantee to 96 hrs credit. And the way I justify it living in base is I wasn't used on the 3 rsv days and was home anyway, felt that I was basically off, and now going to actually go to work 3 days on days off for extra money.


I've asked around buddies at other airlines, not all of them can you just pick up straight open time on reserve days off for extra pay - at any time you want. They seem to have caveats for only premium - like Delta.

It's one really good thing we have on reserve at AS.

Does sound like a nice feature indeed!

New to this!!
 

What do some of y'all schedules look like for the month at Alaska as a line holder and or RSV?

Reserve owes 18 days a month to the company. As an FO, good luck trading days much. The good news is other than PDX and ANC, you will get what you want quickly, or get off reserve entirely. Next comes secondary lines, the leftover trips that everyone else threw back in the recycle bin. They are mostly garbage. Primary lines give you the most trading potential and flexibility, and even being junior I usually get pretty close to what I want. However, if you haven't started class yet, we will probably have moved to PBS by the time you get a line, and it will all have changed.