Idk, I had plenty of good times even pre covid. Most of the time, you're flying broken up trips that are way better than anything published in the bid packet.




Of course more junior pilots will be on reserve, but there are plenty of senior who willingly bid it. Knowing the contract, smart bidding, flexibility and of course, seniority matters. I know of two on the 717 who have blocked less than 60 hours this year. I bid reserve a lot and even as a junior reserve, I have never been used to the point of being full at Delta. It also helps if you're flexible enough to take a strategic GS, eg. taking a Sunday day trip to avoid thay 4 day reserve callout with your name on it. I'll also PD middle reserve days here and there to minimize my exposure, knowing I'll likely make it up with a GS. Many of the senior guys I know just won't bid reserve because they think it's too complicated. Better for the rest of us. Plenty of great reason to not bid reserve, but fear of not knowing how it works, shouldn't be one of them. There are plenty of resources to understand it. Like anything else, the more you do it, the better you'll understand it.

 

Yes yes, Reserve Bad, Line Good. Let's keep repeating that, especially if you're senior to me (which is very likely since I'm 95+% in seat). Don't do it, it's so bad only new hires should be subject to that kind of abuse. Reserve rewards those that take a detailed look at the rules and try to play the game. If you just bid X-days in PBS and don't do anything else, it's very likely you will be abused, especially in ATL. If you're willing to put a little bit of effort the results will surprise you. Many people find that to be too much work or the uncertainty to be too stressful, which is why at the end of the day bidding REG is more popular. If you're a commuter, I totally get it and I would try to get a REG line as soon as possible as well, but living in base RES can be a great deal, even for the super junior in seat like me.

 

To be fair, I think we shouldn't compare WB to NB reserve life. Two completely different animals. Case in point: looking at wide reports, I've seen plenty of WB plugs getting lines. I've never once seen a NB plug hold a line.

 

Being junior on reserve is less desirable than being a junior line holder. However, if you can figure out the system and what works for you, anything above 80% isn't that bad at all. I have a NB friend who, when there is positive coverage, drops a middle day. Then GS one 2 day and pretty much only works that trip, maybe one more.

 

Reserve is highly dependent on BES. NYC ER A 75% has me at 200ish block this year. Rolling two year average I’m at 5.5 days a month “having to leave my house for delta airlines for any part of the day for any reason”.

BUT we’re decently staffed, the fleet isn’t growing, there are only 3 bases (also not really practical to poach a NYC pilot for an LAX trip) and the nature of our flying is usually fly somewhere far away, fly back a day or two later.

fleets with 3-4 legs a day going into and out of hubs are far more prone to operational meltdowns necessitating the use of reserves, especially in Atlanta. Add in some weather and you’re going to get used.

 

And such is my life as a junior ATL 320 A. Reserve is the only time I ever get those 3+ leg day 319/320 trips with back to back 4am reports. At least as a line holder I have control of my sleep schedule (personally one of my top bidding priorities), I can swap out of crappy trips relatively easily, and since GS's are basically impossible for me I can pad my time card with the occasional high credit day turn WS.

 

Now I understand that ATL guys don't think there is a world outside if ATL 😁, but in less then a few minutes, I found 3 or 4 NB categories where the plugs were line holders for OCT. There were even a few more that the vice plug, and many just above them, were line holders.

 

That's because we are two completely different air lines.

-- WBA that can't even hold RES when I want to.

 

Is this some sort of "other bases" joke I'm too Atlanta to understand?

Edit: one question: this those NB line holder plugs have vacation?

 

It should be noted that many times a very junior pilot can sneak into a REG line when more senior pilots can’t. This can happen when the junior pilot has some sort of additional credit (training, vacation, carry-in, mil leave, etc) that allows PBS to complete a line with the scraps that are left when a more senior pilot with a “clean” schedule can’t get a full schedule built.