watch

thanks for the input. I don't see many posts about AA pilots "gaming" to get crazy pay like southwest or Delta.

In the slower months, what is the reserve utilization rate for NB FOs? I will be living in base; is it better to bid short call reserve, sit at home, then pick up open time in your off days for extra credit?

RhinoBallAuto

I suspect you don’t hear much “gaming” talk because AA’s best game is IMAX, and IMAX has created two vastly different camps of pilots - those who hate and constantly bash IMAX (typically those who never attempted to understand it, who find themselves work limited and also pay limited), and those who love IMAX and try to educate others on its potential (because they understand it and have learned to capitalize on it to become simultaneously work limited and pay protected). Those who really know how to use it are getting crazy big pay for crazy little work.

Regarding your SC question...Is it better? Well, “better” is always a relative term, ya know, one man’s trash...

You won’t be able to simply sit SC and pickup Open Time... OT is only avail for line holders to freely pick up; reserves can’t do it as you described. If they’re strapped for reserves relative to need, you could get called as a reserve pilot to fly on a day off (some restrictions apply), which they offer in seniority order. Depending on their level of desperation, it pays at straight pay over reserve guarantee, or premium (1.5x over guarantee). This happens at company discretion. Some pilots do pretty well taking extra flying in this matter.

Many of those senior in their status will bid reserve because they like the idea of getting 73(76) hrs pay for lesser amounts of flying, which as you surmised can be pretty low in non-peak months. Living in base, it can be a pretty sweet QOL with a very low time-actually-at-work/pay ratio. OTOH, pre-COVID, summer and holiday months often saw reserve pilots break guarantee and rarely home. So some prefer the schedule predictability and “perks” (e.g., pickup, trip trade, trip drop...as limited as those are) of being a line holder, even if your work/pay ratio is higher.

watch

RhinoBallAuto thank you, I appreciate it as I'm sure do many others.

At my carrier the "inside baseball" of the bidding system is usually not spread around by members of the same seat - they don't want to share the knowledge that gives them an edge when bidding. I flew with a pilot who, after he had been with the company for five years, still had no idea how to effectively improve his line - he was still mostly just flying what was awarded in the monthly bid.

Are the PBS paid services helpful to learn for the first couple of months? Or is it easy enough to learn by trial and the manual?

Al Czervik

The PBS help desk (free) is awesome. They will definitely help you fine tune your bid. When talking IMAX, it’s done post bid through trip trade/pick up/drop and there is a lot of information available to pilots. It’s one of the great things about IMAX, pilots can help each other out. Seniority helps drastically but it will work depending on how hard you want to work no matter seniority. I use a excel spreadsheet that has been passed around to help me figure out how much credit I need to get a couple of months off in a row.

watch

Awesome, this sounds great. I'm excited to learn how it works.