I see. For example, what about MSP 73 or 320 FO?

 

Flight attendants have this restriction, they have to fly a certain amount to maintain benefits like medical coverage, but we don't have that restriction.

 

Perfect. Thanks for the clarification.

 

It really depends but it's not as easy as it was at my previous airline. Straight pay on most NB fleets is 5.15 per day and the max pick up limit is the Average Line Value (generally between 70-85) + 15. As a junior pilot, you can get GS(2x pay) fleet depending but I would say not to expect more than one a month at most outside of summer months. You can buddy swap off the pilot to pilot swap board above the ALV+15 limit but I don't know how easy it is to make stuff fit in your days off. Most trips on there after the first few days after schedules are published are 4-5 days.

For the boo birds, yes I know some guys do it and yes I know it's possible for a junior guy to make bank. Just explaining that it's time of year, base and equipment dependent.

 

The following really only applies to reserve, and is FWIW.:

I bid reserve by choice, and average about 10 hours of pay per day worked, with a combination of Vacation, CQ, work rule “extras”, reroute, etc, but mostly Green Slips (premium pay). This has stayed fairly consistent for me both as a very senior FO and a middle third Captain who works the system to my advantage. However, as a reserve pilot, you are somewhat at the mercy of availability of Green Slips for the majority of the “additional” pay above guarantee. These days, you might get 1, or maybe 2, in most domestic categories. You also have very limited opportunities to pickup any extra non-premium on reserve.

I don’t think you can expect to credit 150-200 hours on reserve here. Maybe in the middle of the Covid “recovery”, when GS#6 was not uncommon, but not now - or anytime soon.

How long you may be “stuck” on reserve is anyone’s guess, and is very category dependent. Once you can hold a line, it’s much more possible to “hustle” and approach the 130-150 hour mark, or more in some cases. Good luck.

 

If a reg pilot drops their whole schedule and then proceeds to pick up enough green slips on a busy month to hit the greenslip pay trigger (lets say they flew 70 hours block), is that all considered premium? Would they pretty much get 140 credit for flying 70 hours? And is that a similar end result as a reserve pilot exclusively flying greenslips (rolling thunder) at the start of the month until full?

I know that's overly optimistic for this season but just curious for the sake of discussion.

 

No. The green slip trigger must be hit BEFORE you can get premium pay. In your hypothetical situation you would fly multiple green slips and only get single pay for them. You need to hi the green slip credit trigger using your regular trips, payback days, vacation, bank, etc. and then any green slip credit beyond the trigger is paid as premium pay.

 

This might change with the introduction of silver slips, which are premium trips which go out without regard to the GS trigger. They pay 200%, but they are capped, though, because they're treated as normal flying as far as the pick up limit. I think there is also some premium available via PBS, but I'm unsure how far out that is to being implemented.

 

Credit is the thing that counts toward the trigger. Any way you can increase credit without flying brings you closer to the trigger. And you can always borrow 5 hours from the full service bank. In fact I plan on using that 5 hours every month because it gives you roughly 1 more day of opportunity for a GS.

 

Until you run out of time to pull. You can only go so much in the hole, and eventually that has to be paid back.