Reserve for Dummies
09-26-2025 | 07:52 PM
#4022
On Reserve
Joined: Mar 2023
Posts: 155
Likes: 23
From: Neutral
09-26-2025 | 07:59 PM
#4023
.
Joined: Nov 2017
Posts: 3,519
Likes: 686
if you don’t know, buy the hard plastic finger tip splints from Amazon, the ones that arc up slightly, with no cushion. Put them on, and leave them on for like 4 months. That tendon will heal and though stiff for a bit, you’ll be right as rain. Annoying, yes…but the good non-surgical correction. Worked great for me.
09-26-2025 | 08:05 PM
#4024
On Reserve
Joined: Mar 2023
Posts: 155
Likes: 23
From: Neutral
Oh hell, yeah that’s no good. I flew combat missions with 2 on; where there’s a will there’s a way, but mine definitely were not retracted.
09-26-2025 | 08:24 PM
#4025
.
Joined: Nov 2017
Posts: 3,519
Likes: 686
I was landing an E-2 on the carrier a week after being pumped full of chemo drugs. I flew SH-60Bs weeks post major surgery that the FAA took two years of testing and waiting to give me a SI 2nd class. And 2 more years to get a 1st back. (All the while flying in the US and foreign airspace systems)
Not risking my ticket/job over flying hurt. If getting yanked around by UMR lands me on STD/LTD because it takes them months to approve surgery (when it was noted as needed day 3 of injury) that's a financial decision UMR/Delta made with their approval/denial/appeal process.
09-27-2025 | 03:03 PM
#4026
Can’t find crew pickup
Joined: Jun 2021
Posts: 3,059
Likes: 200
I have no idea how senior you are, but I am a post-COVID hire based in ATL. When I got hired, I was able to hold a line right off OE (not ATL based at the time) and it was fine, but I quickly figured out that once I could hold weekends off on reserve, my QOL and time at home went way up compared to my junior lineholder peers. I do often drop a day in the middle of a block, but its easy to make that pay up with GS, and hard to beat being at <20 nights in hotels for the year so far. Bidding the latest SC possible (excluding 2359) helps, otherwise it is mostly luck and holding the company to the contract when it comes to how they assign stuff, contactability, rest, etc. I may go back to a line once I can hold Barbados layovers, but that might be quite some time, ha.
09-27-2025 | 04:03 PM
#4027
Leaves Biscoff crumbs
Joined: Jan 2020
Posts: 3,265
Likes: 941
From: Blue Juice Taste Tester
Low 90's% 320A
09-27-2025 | 07:36 PM
#4028
Line Holder
Joined: Jan 2018
Posts: 512
Likes: 99
Daggum, in my category even the plug can get G#2 in September, albeit most likely a 1 day trip for G#2.
09-27-2025 | 07:47 PM
#4029
Racketeer
Joined: Mar 2015
Posts: 13,339
Likes: 829
From: N60.4858 W149.9327
I did the math at 1 and 2 years before my upgrade and it was break even with a person in my NH class that upgraded at the first opportunity which was 5 years before me. He also had an NYC commute and other things that didn’t make it an apples to apples comparison on QOL but it was less than 2K annually and days worked were in my favor by 2+ per month. I’m curious if it still is close or if the early upgrade is more pay for less QOL.
09-28-2025 | 01:09 AM
#4030
Can’t find crew pickup
Joined: Jun 2021
Posts: 3,059
Likes: 200
Have you done an analysis of pay to include GS, buy offs etc. had you become more senior in an FO seat? I get the motivation for a quicker upgrade but I always wondered if It’ll be better money over all. At some point the captain pay will be higher but where that is is a function of seniority. How quickly you move in seat seniority and a willingness to trade QOL for extra pay etc.
I did the math at 1 and 2 years before my upgrade and it was break even with a person in my NH class that upgraded at the first opportunity which was 5 years before me. He also had an NYC commute and other things that didn’t make it an apples to apples comparison on QOL but it was less than 2K annually and days worked were in my favor by 2+ per month. I’m curious if it still is close or if the early upgrade is more pay for less QOL.
I did the math at 1 and 2 years before my upgrade and it was break even with a person in my NH class that upgraded at the first opportunity which was 5 years before me. He also had an NYC commute and other things that didn’t make it an apples to apples comparison on QOL but it was less than 2K annually and days worked were in my favor by 2+ per month. I’m curious if it still is close or if the early upgrade is more pay for less QOL.
If I was a local, that math would swing the other direction being able to sit SC from home and possibly feast on short notice GS as a senior FO.
But living in base isn’t in the cards (and any airlines base for that matter).
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