No. all reserve lines are 12 days off. Starting April you will be able to have those 12 days off all consecutive with long call reserve and crew scheduling will assign far 117 rest within the other ~18 days. Only 15% of reserve is required to be LCR.

 

So, you're saying, once your reserve schedule is awarded, your reserve OFF days are set in stone and not changed by scheduling?

 

No. You can drop reserve days provided the required reserve coverage is in excess (a.k.a. Green Day’s). You can either pickup trips on your off days or add/pickup reserve days.

 

Scheduling cannot change those reserve days unless you are Junior manned but I've yet to meet anyone at this company that has been in the last two years.

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I guess I'm not understanding how a reserve line works here. Do you bid based on your preferences and then are assigned according to how those fit in with your seniority and what others bid? Or are there established lines that you bid for? Do they try to make the lines commutable? And I've read that you can commute in on the first day. How does that work?

 

You will enter into a program (PBS) what your work preferences are for the month and how much value you think those preferences are to you (I.e. days you want off, days you want to work, priority of reserve periods, etc) and that program will use its algorithms to generate you a reserve line based on those requests and your real active seniority. For example you and every other reserve line holder may want weekends off, but the company needs x number to work weekends. Senior reserve line holders get them off and junior guys don’t. That simple. You will know when the bid package comes out where you rank and what type of line you can expect prior to bidding on PBS.

As far as commutable reserve lines. P1 starts at 0500, so most commute in day prior and commute home on last day of reserve. P2 starts at 1000 so most commute in day of and may have to commute home day after last reserve day. P3 starts at 1700 so most commute in day of and plan to commute home day after last reserve day. Long Call Reserve just came back to us. It gives you a 12 hour call out instead of the minimal 2 hours. Theoretically you can then commute in after being called.

 

P3 usually starts at 1900 or 1915 not 1700 and runs til midnight. If you're not given an assignment for the last day before end of the second to last day, you're automatically released. This makes it the best reserve shift for commuters... you will never need to spend more than 14 nights away from home no matter how challenging your commute is (two leg, crossing time zones etc). P2 reserve is also a really good option for commuters with the low utilization of 900 fo reserves. You'll almost always get released at 4 pm on the last day if you call and ask. Otherwise, automatically at 7. If you're used on the last day though, they can use you as late as midnight (or even 2 am I believe before it's a junior man) and you might have to spend an extra night in base before commuting home. P1 auto releases at 2 pm on the last day... sooner (like 11) if you call and ask on a good coverage day.

also another thing to keep in mind...you can use the first two and a half hours (or less in other bases) of your reserve availability to commute in to base. So you don't have to be in NY by 10am for day one of P2 but rather 12:30. Of course you need two options that arrive by 12:30 but that's very doable from most of the Midwest and east coast.

Another commuter friendly provision to keep in mind with reserve is alternate deadheads. Quite often reserve assignments end with a deadhead. Let's say you're NYC based but live in IND and you're assigned a trip that ends with a ATL to NYC deadhead. You can have crew scheduling deadhead you to IND instead and you keep the original deadhead pay credit.

 

Ah, so P2 and P3 lines are what folks mean when they say they commute in during their window?

 

How does commuting in the day of work with codomicile since you have to cover both airports on reserve? I’m not a commuter, just curious.

 

Reading the contract language 25.L.3.b.ii.4 they have to give you additional time to reposition upon arrival.

"A pilot who is unavailable for contact [read...first day of reserve] and is assigned to NYC will be permitted additional time to reposition from the airport of arrival to the airport at which the trip originates [if necessary]."

When you utilize this provision of the contract where you commute in during beginning of reserve call out you are already calling crew scheduling to tell them which flight you're on. If you tell them you're flying to LGA and arrive at 12:30, they basically block you from doing anything anytime soon at JFK. I interpret that as you'd be allowed at least enough time to catch the next Golden Touch shuttle between airports (runs every 2 hours or so and then takes 60 mins plus 30 or so minutes to reach your gate) before being required to arrive to JFK. If they need you to get there sooner they may call you a limo.