This will result in more flying for reserve pilots. The schedulers are often not good at their jobs, anyone that pays attention should be able see that. This is an automated way of eliminating waste because the schedulers often aren't savvy enough to notice it and eliminate it themselves.

End result will be an overall increase in reserve pilot productivity. You'd be foolish to believe the company would willingly do this otherwise even if you didn't have experience with reserve. If you have reserve experience and still don't see what they're doing here then you're either not paying attention or not very smart.

Chess vs checkers. Expect an overall increase in short calls and just as significant expect an average earlier start time. Less greenslips and higher reserve usage. I'm surprised it took them this long.

The only positive I can see is a commuter gets a bonus hour, but that will be negated often with uncertainty about the next days short call and the higher likelihood of an earlier trip the next day.

Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Right?

But I suspect the true benefit/loss due to this change will vary for each and every pilot. Commuters and such will likely welcome the change. Those of us who willingly play the reserve game and treat it nearly as a sport (and work the system as much as we can) will see some drawbacks.

Color me indifferent for now.

How can you commute home after your 1000-1900 SC is now followed by a 0700-1600 SC the next morning?This is the concern. This will become more prevalent.

Yes, I'm fully aware they could already do this. But most times they wouldn't. It required more perceptive and motivated schedulers to do it, and it is a manual intervention. Many, if not most schedulers don't fall into that category. Now, the computer program does it for them and you're going to show up as available earlier the next day when they are making assignments.

Scoop is right, time will tell. I've stated my case, and most are not convinced. That's fine. I honestly hope I'm wrong. I'll stop beating a dead horse.....


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I share your suspicion. I highly doubt this is a benevolent move to keep us more rested. It is most likely tied to the One Delta cost cutting initiative just because of the timing alone. Somebody was sitting on this change waiting to turn it into a promotion. I'm willing to see how it plays out but cost and data drive every decision. Just remember your Rally health rewards survey recommends regular bed times and consistent sleep patterns. This could get fatiguing.

There are unlimited hypotheticals we could postulate. But, in yours, the old schedule would be SC 1000-2200. Rest...then another SC 1000-2200 which could be the last day of your reserve sequence. If you’re headed into a X day, now you’re off 6 hours earlier in your example and for most I’d wager that’s the difference in making it home or not.

I'd counter that this is neither wet dream nor nightmare. There will likely be some impact which certain pilots will experience, both good and bad, but as of now it's too early to determine the magnitude and frequency of those impacts.

Or waste your day in base because you are doing 1300-2200. After sitting a red eye window from 1800-0300.

This isn’t making sense to me at all, but admittedly I have done very little reserve over the last decade. Prior to the change, you were only “essentially unusable” for a short call assignment during those 21 hours. You were absolutely useable for a long call assignment. The coverage is based on your status at the time of report for the rotation being assigned. If you were on hour 11 of SC and there is a trip 14 hours out where you would be a long call pilot, you could get the call. The same call will happen now. Nothing changed there.

Last point on this... The 3-pilot vice 2 in a 24-hour period assumes all fleets are created equal. I can’t speak to other domestic fleets, but the Maddog doesn’t presently do red eyes. We’re currently operating on ~18-hour window (earliest push usually around 0600, latest arrival just after midnight). There maybe a few exceptions once in awhile, but broadly speaking, 2 pilots on 9 hour SC could cover the entire day for that fleet. A 3rd pilot on SC would just be fat.

Granted, some fleets need 24/7 coverage. I’m just making the point that we will see differences based on specific fleet as well, so broad math won’t capture the whole picture. Again, this is likely a win for some, a loss for others as stated.

Overall, the steaks on this issue appear on the surface to be extremely low as compared to other issues our group is facing, I.e. continuing Scope/JV violations. IMHO, that’s where we should be spending our energy; not on a shortened work day.

Completely agree. Well said.