Reserve should be an option, that should warrant consideration by all pilots in a catgeroy. You should either fly a line, or be placed on reserve in case something comes up. The natural trade-off to reserve should be that you get paid less, are available a lot, but don't have to fly nearly as much. You should also enjoy a modicum of seniority-based decision-making when several trips are available.

It should not be an unscheduled line, not a cesspool where you feel like you're the Philipino girl, and some scheduler is your pimp, and not a hurdle you have to jump over into a new category.

How many people are stuck not taking an upgrade because of this system?

In a way, it IS an option. Don't bid into a category where you aren't senior enough to hold a regular line. I KNOWINGLY did so. Yeah it sucks at times, and I'd much rather fly KBP than GRU.. but it is what it is. As far as the rest of your post.. I got no argument.

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What I meant by "option" is that it should be just a different way of working, with slight disadvantages, and slight advantages. A guy might say "I bid Reserve", as a opposed to a guy having to be stuck on Reserve. I know there are a few slightly more senior guys bidding it, but few enough to show it for what it is.

Another way to say it is that, by not focusing enough attention on Reserve, we've made it so that an upgrade to a different category, on Resrve, is not an option. We've allowed/endured the creation of a bunch of little minefields we have to skirt as we try to move up.

Hope it makes sense.

Another way to say it is that, by not focusing enough attention on Reserve, we've made it so that an upgrade to a different category, on Resrve, is not an option. We've allowed/endured the creation of a bunch of little minefields we have to skirt as we try to move up.

Hope it makes sense.[/quote]


I understand what your saying but I don't think you understand the history of reserve at Delta. The reserve system at Delta is light years better then when I was a new hire. It used to be a very simple system. 19 days on call and 2 hours to report all the time. It has been improved in every contract until LOA46 to the point where reserve usage was very low and pilots could easily commute on reserve. Commuting on reserve was not a option when I was hired. You moved to your first base period. Reserve got better in each successive contract but still comutting was simply not a option under the windows system. Only with the evolution of the long call short call options and the whitlow ruling did you see large scale commuting on reserve. The current system is not as good as what we go in the 01 contract but it is much better then every contract before that.
Every aspect of our contract degraded under the LOA 46 and bankruptcy. Pay was cut 42 percent as a starter. To say reserve has been neglected is simply not true. I think in fact you could make a case since 1980 reserve has improved more then any other aspect of our contract. Yes it took a big hit in bankruptcy but so did virtually ever aspect of our contract.

North AE Results are out. A lot of movement, but not nearly as many MD's as I would've thought. Closing ANC didn't seem to cause the HUGE waterfall effect that was anticipated.

Check it out.

Only those on the DC9 or MD88 are there because of no choice. EVERY other category is there at their own choice. Having said that, I think it should be improved.

BUT.... there's a huge factor people aren't thinking about. Take a look at how junior many of the reserves are in many of the high paying categories. 2709 on the ATL777A, 5187 on the ATL7ERA. The ONLY reason you can hold reserve on this equipment is because those senior to you don't want it. If we make changes to the reserve system, those currently on reserve likely won't be the ones benefiting; they'll be kicked back to a lower aircraft.

Seniority always follows money and quality of life. The only reason current reservists are making the money they are is because the quality of life (or at least the perceived quality) is low. Change that, and you change the demographics.

Be careful what you wish for.

Point taken. But I don't think that making slices of each category bad, so that the senior guys don't want them, is not inherently a good thing. It's like saying you can be the top servant in a nice house, which affords you a room... but if you weren't a servant, you wouldn't be able to afford to live in such a nice home. It's not being able to reach the part of next category nobody wants that gives you a nice life.

If you want to create demographic pools for the junior to play in, then why not go all the way and bring Express back? That was the ultimate junior pool to go swim in, with super-seniority, and working conditions we can only reminesce upon (unfortunately).

True enough: I don't.

I started at Express, under the 96 contract (I commuted to MCO with no trouble), and flew a little unedr the mainline C2K reserve set up. I just remember that under POS 96 you could actually use your seniority to either move up or hide. There were also reserve move-ups, and things like that, to make the pre-C2K reserve system rather palatable, right?

I also lived under the post LOA 46 reserve contract, and I thought it was awful in terms of choices. Trips existed in open time, and you knew you probably would fly, but you couldn't get what you wanted tomorrow even if you were senior. But you would go out the next day, for a lousy trip both of you were legal for, with similar RAW scores. Let me rephrase: you can't do any of that even today. It's still about how the scheduler wants to play with days of availablity, etc.

Not putting words in your mouth, but would it then be correct to say that the history of reserve at Delta has always been that it is a "junior issue", something little capital was expanded on?

Where do you find them?