Well, I compared the May and June bid awards. Last person in May to finish OE and be awarded reserve had seniority number 12591. That same individual only has 1 person below him in June that is scheduled to sit reserve on 1 July, and that 1 person is scheduled to finish OE on the 1st of June so there is plenty of time to make up OE if his trip runs short.

As for NYC GS, those are a pain since most of us are commuters. Just today an easy 2 day went out of base because of the short notice between award and report. I'd have loved to fly that but there was simply no possible way for me to get there short of borrowing an SR-71. The only one I have flown so far was a trip where I was already in base finishing one trip with a 30 hour layover and got the call before I commuted home.

I did a spot check on a few NYC 717 B pilots for June. Although their PBS award puts them on call on July 1, they have not completed OE, which means that they are not, as of yet, on call on that date. The minute their last LCP marks them "OK," they will show as being on call on July 1, and the reserve available number on that date should increase accordingly.

Indeed so. But he is not technically on reserve until he has completed OE. Similarly, were he a line holder, he would not be allowed to pick up additional flying until his LCP marks him "OK."

Not sure what you mean by discrepancy. Because Delta must staff by position, not category, one category within a position may be overstaffed while another is understaffed. That situation can lead to the reserves available being consistently less than reserves required throughout a bid period.

It seems that you are describing how they are running it. The question I have posed, and am awaiting a response to, is where is Reserves Available defined?

23W defines Reserves Required, but nowhere (that I've been able to find) does it specify how the Available number is calculated. 23W mentions the Available number, but does not define it. I can't see anything that prohibits or allows them to not count a reserve pilot until he is marked OK - it seems to be an open interpretation.

As Mike pointed out, a pilot scheduled to finish OE on June 1st could be reasonably expected to be available at some point later in the month. If we aren't claiming credit for him, we are costing ourselves QOL in the form of schedule flexibility. This is happening in more categories than just NYC717B.

If [Reserves] Available is defined somewhere that a pilot must be marked OK before being counted, then fine. If not, I'm hoping to explore further and see if we can obtain a more pilot-friendly interpretation.

don't worry..a bunch of us will be done with 717 OE by the middle of June. Hopefully the staffing number will be correct around then for schedule enhancement :)

23 W. 1. a. defines A (reserves available) to be the number of reserve pilots scheduled to be on call in category for the entire day on D (the date in question). I agree that there is nothing in the language that allows them not to count a reserve pilot who has not completed his OE.

No, the discrepancy is between the count of "how many guys are actually on reserve" in the Reserve Availability Screen in iCrew and the count of "how many guys are actually on reserve" on the Reserves Required Screen.

For example the Reserves Required Screen shows 5 reserves required and 2 available, yet for the same day 6 pilots are on short call.

The difference is that line holders can't PD or swap and reserves can't move x-days because the Reserves Required screen consistently undercounts actual reserves available...
This is all happening in same base on same equipment. This has nothing to do with category level staffing...

Cheers
George

Now I'm with you. I believe the reason is that, to count as a "Reserve Available," a pilot must be on call for the entire day. A pilot who begins short call at noon is not on call the entire day, as he is at rest 0000-1200. Before he was assigned that short call, he was counted in Reserves Available, but once the short call and the requisite prior 12 hours' rest was put on his line, he was not.

OTOH, a pilot who carries a short call into a day from the previous day does count in that day's Reserves Available because he is on call, i.e., not at rest, for the entire day.

I hear ya. My comment was tic. I saw that 2 day in nyc go out on a gs to atl, I don't get how an atl resident would be able to pull that off but I can say I've had friend on atl737 get next day 4 day GS in nyc. It is possible when staffing has collapsed.

I don't get the number either, but one thing I thought is if they show 5 required on Friday but there are 7 actually available is it because of trips that went out earlier in the week that would knock out 2 on Friday? I look at that number all the time and it fluctuates all the time. I don't know why.