Lol, that's exactly what we had almost the entire summer. Lots of days with coverage enough to drop PB days, but it was still GS gone wild. Drop PB days such that you only have one day blocks and it's pretty easy to do...hard to use you on a 1 day blocks. Throw in some vacation and you're already starting the month at 80 hours. Wipe out a few more reserve days with PB (and PR) days here and there and getting ~100 hours isn't that unattainable. Unfortunately the reserve staffing formula is catching up now and the blue days are not as prevalent so it's on to another plan lol. Doesn't work all the time, but good while it last. Point is, not everyone who GS is running out on family dinner or carrying their bags to their kids sporting events. Sometimes it just means you have to occasionally work on reserve days...cost of doing business. Even if you can't use them and they go to vacation, it's still a great deal, though not as good of a deal as it could be.

This is just one example of why PB days are so powerful. I can't even imagine how many of the GS this summer were created as a direct result of PB days being dropped. The only way I'd consider giving them up is for some ridiculous QOL gains that I can't ever see the company agreeing to.

 

Qol give without Qol gain is auto no. You’ll never get ‘em back

 

We understand the concept of it. And I’m for not changing anything about reserve rules, that’s a pretty solid show stopper for me (although I do look at everything as a whole). But understand that just because your category allows it and is running green does not mean the rest of us are “doing it wrong”.

Glad it worked for you and so many others. Little envy here from that point of view.

 

semantics... you could be doing it a whole lot better. If time off is more important don't GS on reserve. You will get 8 days of work for being on call for 15 and compensated 2 hours under ALV within the guardrails. Throw in an easy 2 SCs early and that's probably it for the month. Most locals already know this and are bidding reserve 3-5 months per year, 1-2 training months and 2-3 vacation months. When we were properly staffed years ago I went 45 days without going to the airport and made 90 hours average over those 2 months.

 

I was responding to PlaneTrains post specifically. If you're continuously hawking open time, constantly running out on family plans, annoyed by ARCOS calling and annoying your family with these antics...then I'd certainly say you're doing it wrong. I just can't imagine the family would care for that in the long term. Sure prep a little, but all that's required is to check ARCOS when/if they call. It takes a few seconds to look at and accept or decline.

But yes, I get it doesn't always work that way, I was in a category where I received less than 10 GS calls in 3-4 years...and only got 2 of them. I just had to play a different game, but I still would have fought to keep PB days.

 

Tell me you don’t understand the implications of reserve payback days without telling me you don’t understand the implications of reserve payback days.

But thanks for showing your ineptitude of the PWA.

 

Ive been to Stockholm. And the Delta PWA is NOT better. Not even close. Stockholm is awesome.

 

So is Myhome. QOL baby!

 

Go back 6-8 years ago when there weren’t nearly as many green slips going out. Senior guys still bid reserve - because they worked substantially less than with a line. Senior pilots bid reserve for a variety of reasons. The reserve PB game isn’t new, but it has come front burner due to the massive number of green slips lately. For those that are new, this isn’t how it always is/has been. Senior guys will continue to bid reserve, even if PB days go away.

 

Why do you think they worked less? Could it be because staffing was better?

Reserve payback days do not help staffing and potentially make it worse in some cases. They are a natural disincentive for the company to run too hot for too long. Reserve will become a QoL cesspool if they go away. Simply fixing staffing automatically fixes reserve payback days.