Jack Bauer

Oh great. Wish we could get in on the growth action

gloopy

36-42 additional guaranteed days a year off for reserves is a pretty nice advantage. Most of the airline commutes and as reserve is correlated with juniority (not a straight line relationship but fairly similar) most who commute on reserve benefit very little with mid reserve stint long calls where they weren't used after the fact compared to an extra 36-42 days off a year, guaranteed.

And that's best case when we have fat categories. When we're lean on staffing and reserves are always flying, our current system is even worse.

For every guy sitting long call at home there is someone sitting long call at the hotel or pad and even if they aren't eventually used I doubt very much that *most* reserve pilots benefit more from the current system than having an extra 36-42 guaranteed days a year off.

gloopy

Even if our MX guys are training on it, it could be to do engine work or whatever as SWA decides to outsource a dying orphan plane for the few remaining years they have it.

gloopy

The company can get rid of long call anytime they want to by using pilots for the max short calls and giving them trips all the time when staffing is lean. And they can do it in such a way that results in 18 non commutable (and non boatable at home) days of hard labor. You could, however, do a lot of boating on those extra, guaranteed, always going to get them 100% of the time, 36-42 days a year off.

DAL73n

Actually their "short call" is not really short call in our sense of the word. SWA pilots rarely sit on call. Their reserves normally know where they're going the night prior. You might think of their reserves as having a line but not knowing where they're going to be flying. I think I would take that on reserve (especially since they have 16 days off/month) over our current reserve system. Also, I think most reserves would prefer to fly if they're a commuter (in base reserve is a whole different story). That is another QOL think we need to look at - poor reserve guarantee (70 hours) and 18/19 on call days/month.

tsquare

I have to admit.. I laughed out loud at that.

Wingnutdal

The SWA reserve system is getting a lot of play in this thread. Having a brother who perpetually sits reserve over there, I'll throw in his opinion. If you're on reserve at SW you fly every day. Maybe 4-5 days a year does he not fly on a reserve day. So while I am on reserve 18-19 days, I have never been assigned responsibilities on every day of a month. So, there actually isn't that big a disparity in realized days off.

As with anything, there could be unintended consequences to some changes in our PWA, and this is one area. SWA pilots fly every day they are on reserve, which means there is no fat in their system. Which means they require fewer Pilots. Their whole system is set up to require the fewest number of pilots possible.

For reserve, I would like to see the pay raised to the ALV, or 75 hours. With the realization that reserves will fly to that, and it may require less manning.

tsquare

Thanks for the perspective. I think the other part of this is that we cannot operate that way either because we are a different animal in terms of the scope of operations that we perform. For example, you as an ER reserve cannot fly a 3 day Europe trip then turn around and fly a trip to GRU or Asia because of theatre restrictions. Domestic to international has it's own particular pitfalls in this area which might preclude that kind of reserve system. The question would be then, what is the answer to those issues? On first glance, one might think that those restrictions might be better for us because a reserve is illegal to fly back to back trips in that configuration. I would think the company would balk at that because it makes us less efficient rather than more. I would balk at it because 14 days of SC would SUCK.

I agree with you that ALV needs to be 75 hours for reserve, and the buckets need to be lowered if not eliminated altogether.

scambo1

The arguement for SWA's shortcall and greater days off should not be done in a vacume. If the arguement is FOR the whole SWA contract, there goes along with it other "benefits" like premium pay out of some open time, higher credit for days, fewer plane changes, reserve access to open time, etc. SWA PAYS for efficiency.

There is no arguement FOR 14 days of shortcall without the rest of the package - including their scope clause.

As has been pointed out, DAL reserve can be pretty painful if the category is shortmanned. If you haven't experienced that, you will at some point if you are on reserve. DAL can make it so you get NO days on the lake except your laundry days between trip pieces while you dont break guarantee.

forgot to bid

that's a good point, it has to be all of the above if at all.

And if that happens, then the scope clause has to come with it. It's a nonstarter if it doesn't. And I don't mean a take back or % reduction in DCI, I mean SWA scope.

0 outsourcing.

so while yes we would be incredibly overstaffed with the new rules, maybe the new flying would take care of that to the positive.