I sat reserve for about 5 months last year. Not once did I ever actually get activated for SC without subsequently having a trip placed on my schedule a few hours later. So my experience is that Short Call is not that common. Once we’re properly staffed I’m sure it will become more common, but given the fever pitch of operations and it not even being summer yet I’d say the chances of sitting a bunch of Short Call is pretty low on the narrowbody fleets.

My last time on RSV I got 2 SC. Got used only in 1 of them, the other SC didn’t made sense to me. Sure enough, I did not got used.

The odds of this happening are about the same as an asteroid crashing into your house in the next 30 seconds.

1am vs 3am short call's aren't much different in my book. You won't get that 1am but 3am is pretty common overall to get pilots in position for that 5am report.

People are also conflating the old contract SC usage with the new contract. My experience is I'm already used on the vast majority of SC assignments I have received. Going forward I expect more SC per month and more usage while on SC because of the 18 hour call out. Plus day 1 is still a possible 10am show at the earliest with the only change being an extra 3 hours notice of that 10am-6pm report on day 1.

I've generally said for many categories here you are on SC unless you are on LC even if the book answer is the other way around. Adding 1 hour of pay for an unused SC is pretty cheap if it will save potential GS or the airport standby assignments. They extra hour of pay is great, but if it forces a reserve to need a hotel then it's a wash.

I have been a bottomfeeder reserve guy at Delta since I was hired. Barring a few months post mil leave where I was bidding at 30%ish while NQAT, I've never flown past 70%ish in any category. I was 90%+ as an ERB for years, and now 88%ish as a 320A

I have never done a 0300 short call, ever. Not once.

I’ve never seen 0300 SC, but I’ve seen plenty of people get 0400 SC.

Is short call on top of guarantee now effective?

If unused, yes you will get 1 hour on top of guarantee.

yes. Check your time card for “SCC”

I did about 4 months of reserve last year. On average, I was converted to short call about 5 times a month. Never used on any of those. It wasn't a terrible time.