What you are missing is this. If Rolling Thunder is going on, it doesn't move a reserve from when he "might" be used. He WILL be used every day he is on call, period. That's the reality when you see "GS#4" in the Daily Trip Coverage. That would be like criticizing a GSWC by saying "it is dropping a future trip from a pilots schedule that he may have personally dropped anyway."

Do you really feel that a reserve should eat crap, fly 18 days for reserve guarantee or slightly more, sit several short calls, and otherwise get walloped by crew scheduling, vs never sit one day of call, fly fewer hours and get paid far, far more? That almost sounds like "you'll be senior someday" elitism.

Rolling Thunder isn't for everyone. You have to first be in a category where multiple GS are pretty much guaranteed. That doesn't happen often and shouldn't either. Beyond that if you find yourself in such a category you then have to plan on flying on your days off so that then your original on call days become days off. Not every pilot's family and personal life can accommodate that.

But, if all that applies, you should check it out sometime. You just might like it.

 

Weekends are when staffing is shortest. If a pilot can’t hold weekends off but flies a greenslip on weekdays when staffing is “better” thus getting their weekend off, is that the same as a regular flying a greenslip on the weekdays and then also flying their trip on the weekend? If categories end the month with zero available reserves because they are full/payback day covered, does that help the company? What are you taking issue with?

 

Check out 330A greenslips! Regardless it will all fix itself come Oct as more pilots get trained and the block hours drop.

 

Nobody in this entire conversation has ever said that line holders should not do GS so that reserves can get them. That’s just asinine. All that’s being said is a reserve GS generally is more disadvantageous to the company than regular GS. Again, if the rumor is true, the fact that the company is trying to kill the PB day system speaks volumes.

Also, just like no one is telling line holders not to do GS, saying that a reserve should skip GS so that a reg pilot can get GSWC is completely false. For one, all that is really going to do is allow another reg pilot to get GS #1, 2, 3, etc. Plus the company has shown a nearly complete unwillingness to use GSWC during this staffing crisis. They will end up just splitting the trip and otherwise cover it via GS or RR, or just cancel the flight.

 

I've had very good results with Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays off this year. It's all about low black days on the res table. But yes, weekends tend to have the lowest numbers. In the summer, with all the 5 days the likelihood of a trip hitting one of those days is very high. Breaking trips costs the company more because the precious credit is added, thereby destroying the pre-bid optimization the company has built into the trips in the bid package. If they can, they will keep the trip in tact. The company has no clue how detrimental this ridiculous trip mix and optimization is to the system. This is why I won't bid a regular line now. Then, you add a reroute or a duty period that runs late and the trip you thought you had disappears. The company can't even answer a phone in a timely manner, there is no ability to plan or react so the GSs are handed out like candy on Halloween and that solves their problem. Fine by me.

 

WB guys out themselves very quickly when they speak.

 

Thats now known as, “Pulling a United”.

let’s not do that.

 

What planet are you living on? Not only am I a no, but a HELL NO to any reserve gs pb day gives.

 

I never thought our reserve GS rules made sense. A GS should pay double on top of reserve guarantee but you shouldn’t get days back. The current way never made sense to me.

 

It makes perfect sense, and many dollars too. Not changing a thing.