PasserOGas

Hey fellas.

B6 guy here. As you may know we just got a TA. There are some questions about reserve as it works at other companies. Our MEC has been weak on details here.

How does reserve work at AA? I'm not looking for all the gory details, but generally. Is long call the standard and then you are switched? Is there an override or limits on how much short call you can sit? Can you pick up flying or reserve on days off?

Also, can one of you guys get on hiring me?

mainlineAF

You bid either long or short call. Long call is 12 hour call out, short is reasonable time.

Long call pays 73, short pays 76. If on long call you can be converted to short 5 times a month for an extra :30 mins on top of guarantee.

No picking up straight time on days off. You can pick up if the company designates a trip premium or “over guarantee”.

Sliceback

You can't be on reserve and see an uncovered trip and pick it up. CS assigns trips the day before or the day of the trip.

You can volunteer to fly on your days off (OG= 1.0 pay, Premium reserve PR =1.5x pay). OG and PR get added to your guarantee for any trip that touches any of your days off*. You don't get to choose to pick up a trip, instead CS calls you the day before while filling open time and offers it to you if they're out of reserve coverage.

* - The perfect OG/PR trip is one that barely touches your day off and is mostly work when you were going to be on call anyway.

Clint

Copy and paste from the summary page on the APA Reserve User's Guide.

The pilot Reserve system of American Airlines is a bifurcated system consisting of one group of pilots awarded “Long Call” and another group of pilots awarded “Short Call” Reserve lines each month.
Long Call Reserve (LCR)
A pilot awarded an LCR line is considered an LCR pilot for the entire bid month and will perform Long Call Duty on each day of Reserve availability unless converted to Short Call Duty. LCR pilots require a minimum of 12 hours of notice prior to any sequence or RAP award or assignment. LCR pilots are to be contactable at all times during LCR Duty until released from this requirement (e.g. for a required rest period, prior to a DFP or planned absence). A pilot awarded an LCR line will be paid a monthly guarantee of 73 hours.
An LCR pilot may be converted to serve Short Call Duty and will be paid an additional 30 minutes for each day that Short Call Duty is awarded or assigned. LCR to SCR conversions are limited to five involuntary assignments per bid period. There is no limitation to the number of times an LCR pilot can be awarded an SCR conversion.
Short Call Reserve (SCR)
A pilot awarded an SCR line is considered an SCR pilot for the entire bid month and, unless assigned a sequence, usually will perform Short Call Duty on each day of Reserve availability. SCR pilots are usually assigned RAPs and are expected to be contactable during these times. A pilot awarded an SCR line will be paid a monthly guarantee of 76 hours. Pilots awarded an SCR line will participate in a second round of monthly bidding to determine their assigned RAP for each day of Short Call Duty immediately following a DFP or planned absence.
Open Time Coverage
During DOTC, CS will generally assign open sequences that will be operated by Reserve pilots the day before the sequence begins. This process is scheduled to begin each day at 1000 HBT and completed by 1500 HBT. Sequences and RAPs for the 24-hour period beginning at 0200 the next morning are awarded and assigned to QLA pilots. Pilots on Reserve Duty and available for assignment the next day are required to check their activity record (HI1) between 1500 and 1600 HBT to verify assignments made during DOTC.
When sequences for the same day (or next day, after the completion of the DOTC process) become open, CS will generally contact the appropriate pilot or pilots to proffer and/or assign the open sequence. If the assigned pilot is presently in a status that does not allow a contact attempt (e.g. on an FAR rest period), CS will follow contractually required steps to award/assign the pilot.
For all open sequences that permit at least 12 hours of notice, all QLA LCR pilots will be utilized before assigning or awarding a sequence to an SCR pilot.
Generally, in any bid month, a Reserve pilot can be assigned no more than 85 hours of flying.
Certain voluntary flying on days off does not count toward this maximum.

drinksonme

Considering the question came from a JetBlue pilot, you might want to stow the AA lingo 😐.


In case they are reading this

OG= Over Guarantee (reserve pilot option to fly on days off and make over the guarantees of 73 hour for Long call and 76 hours for a short call)

PR = premium reserve or premium pay (1.5x hourly for designated trip. We rarely see this however)

Most trips never make it “PR” because we have something called the “MU” list. (make-up), which is made up of pilots who are lineholders looking for more hours at their normal rate. MU is also on days off. Usually an open trip is covered by a line pilot on MU, or a reserve, long before it gets to premium pay. One of biggest problems here. Premium is light because most pilots on MU just can’t help themselves and take the trips.

BeechPilot33

Should be a code to no MU guy to pick up time until it goes premium. How does Delta premium pickup compare to AA? It seems they make a killing on premium trips. Is it just contract language that needs to be changed or is it a fundamental way that scheduling assigns trips.

Frip

A lot of the MU is actually guys who drop their schedule and rebuild it in MU, and take the easy turns and 1/1's when it suits them.

An evening DFW-TUL 1/1 pays the same 10:20 that a morning 3/3 two day does, and leaves the day free, for example.

More doing this thsn just loading up at straight time, and those doing that are probably playing the IMAX game. In that one a pilot pushes their personal MMAX to some near-zero level, and then bids reserve and gets paid for 73/76 hours with no opportunity for the company to use them, or a line and gets paid the bottom of the LCW for whatever little flying they do.

Works great for those who can't hold summer vacation or holidays off, and are willing to bust hump during boring months like February in exchange for a month or sometimes two "off" with pay.

That said, a method of making all flying over the LCW Premium, and awarded accordingly, is probably worth looking at, along with a means to rotate the premium amingst the group.

Anyone wanting to pursue that should be ready to be called unAmerican, socialist, anti-seniority and be ready to persuade a lot of pilots that they should agree to the slaughter of their own personal sacred cattle.

QuagmireGiggity

Also Long calls have a little more control. You can proffer the day before for open trips the next day. Seniority. Short call you're kind of at their mercy. Long call they can't make you show before noon on your first day. Last day of reserve if they haven't used you 6 hours into a short call rap you are auto released. Long call if they haven't used you by 10 am you're done. Finish after 10 pm the day before your last day on LC you got your last day off for free. Overall I like reserve here. Usually the trip you get is what you do without them adding a lot of crap to it like Eagle did. Do your trip and go home. That convert to short call thing happens but has been very rare for me. They like to use Long calls first, I've heard widebody guys in Miami for instance can fly 70 hours a month while short calls only do 20. Not so big a difference for narrowbody. Long call is completely commutable if you have a decent enough commute.

meyers9163

Well and we are still green book on much of the reserve system. Much of the JCBA in this section has yet to be fully implemented yet. Unsure if it ever will to be honest as they have no reason to nor does APA have any leverage to push the issue.

Sliceback

It’s the end of the month. The enhanced reserve display will show how much guys have flown this month.

As the ads say “current performance isn’t a guaranteed predictor of future performance.”