stang

Gotcha. Thanks!

Slowhawk

On reserve they give you blocks of 2 days off and one contractually required 4 day block off, typically . I’m a coast to coast commuter and the best I could get was 5on, 2off, 5on, 2 off, 5on, 4 off, 5on, etc. Expect 11 or 12 days off per month total depending on if it’s a 30 or 31 day month. So basically imagine you’re spending weekends at home and M-F in your domicile, with one 4 day weekend in there.

I’ve spent 16 months on reserve here,14 as an FO, looking like it’ll be 20 total. This was a typical schedule. You can sometimes get a little better, but not much. What you get in the bid packet is what you’re stuck with with little exception. For some absurd reason we aren’t allowed to bid “min days off between work blocks” on reserve

stang

That seems like a long reserve compared to others for FO? So on your 2 days off are you making the coast to coast commute? How about taking an extended vacation unpaid ?

Bid packet, please explain?

Thank you for all the information. Just trying to figure it all out.

yrbroom

For that long of reserve, they were probably hired right before the hiring freeze that took place in early 2017 (I believe) and they were just stuck as bottom of the barrel. Your seniority only means so much if people continue to be added below you as well.

Excargodog

Yeah. If he were at the bottom when the hiring freeze hit he was sort of doubly screwed. First of all Compass was overmanned - which triggered the hiring freeze - which means that reserve troops are underutilized and there is no movement for them. So not only are you stuck on it a long time, you aren't getting many hours a month, which sets you up for an extended time to get 1000 qualifying 121 hours to upgrade.

Then when you eventually DO upgrade, there isn't anybody behind you who is upgrade eligible, so you STILL stay the bottom man on the next totem pole until there are substantial numbers of people behind you who can upgrade to a reserve spot.

What is worse is that a lot of people that were hired had:
1. Pretty minimal ME time
2. Pretty minimal TT (RATP)

So even once they did get their 1000 121 hours they STILL didn't have company minimums for upgrade meaning there was no one to move up behind him.

So yeah, the Fickle Finger of Fate sort of gave the shaft to Slowhawk.

Your mileage may (and hopefully will) vary. Those of us talking about a week on reserve before getting a line were mostly hired 7-10 months after Slowhawk and have benefitted greatly from his misery in terms of short reserve and upgrade times and have an avalanche of people behind us in seniority to push us along.

But it's a regional. It can change in a heartbeat.

BobbyLeeSwagger

For what it's worth... (and if you read my posts, you know that's not much) I think we're heading into another wave at compass and at the majors. With Delta picking back up later this year and early next year.. We should see a big spike in compass attrition. Same for United which has recently surfaced as a new attrition source. Plus, by then more FOs will be upgrading as well since the summer will be over. If you're willing to risk the issue with the contracts. I think Fall '19 compass hires will be in a really good spot.

stang

Oh I have gathered there are great snack baskets Everything is pointing to Compass should I get an CJO - hence all my recent questions after reading everything possible.

BobbyLeeSwagger

Good on you for doing the research. If you end up here, update other folks who are in your current spot as to the wait times for a class, class size, reserve etc. You'll have the best info at that point. A lot of the 121 jargon you'll pick up along the way.

VIRotate

Don’t forget about moving reserve days around. I do the coast to coast commute and I’m about to get a few groups of 4-7 days off straight by moving days around.

Slowhawk

I feel personally attacked haha let the record show I’m not complaining, just saying I know my way around a reserve schedule

VIRotate, you taught me how to commute now teach me this reserve magic you speak of