Reserve is pretty bad at ASA. Here are a few things off the top of my head that need to change in no specific order:

All off days non movable
Long call should be long call. All month long I get converted and then surprise surprise, assigned to a trip.
No calls to be released and no waiting at the airport for an hour to see if something comes up.
We also need a percentage of reserve lines that have weekends off since they company refuses to make any that have weekend GDO's anymore.
Ready reserve needs to 4 hours for 4 hours, with no overlapped time in the morning at night when there are no departures.

 

As a dude who recently went from senior FO lineholder to extremely junior CA reserve, I both second this and am guilty of this. I hadn't given much thought to the reserve rules since the 3-4 months after I hit the line as a new hire. Now that I'm back in the meat grinder, it is a shock to the system. Add to that a grab bag of schedulers/supes, ranging from those who know the contract and are willing to work with you to find a solution everyone can live with, to others who are just combative and threaten you for no benefit to either party. It can suck sometimes, even at a place with decent rules like XJT. I think most of the suggestions so far have been spot on.

The things I would like to see:
- On your last day you are automatically released after 12 hours, but no later than 1800L.
- A "free drop" during the transition. I'm tired of the 4on/1off/3on BS.
- The block of reserve days is treated as a solid block, rather than individual days for the purposes of "vacation touching/dropping".

 

I think our MEC needs to mail each legacy ASA pilot a copy of our contract. Us Jetstinkers are not the evil, company-ruining, over-paid, under-worked types we have been made out to be!

 

The important thing to realize here is that ASA ALPA doesn't give a rat's bum about reserves/ reserve quality of life.

PBS reserve bidding was a loss of QOL, by tying your off days to your callout period. (Granted, Vacation low has had some unintended benefit, but that's a byproduct of a lineholder "feature")

Reserve lines have gone from consistently having a small selection of lines with weekend GDO's to months where NO lines had a single weekend GDO day. That's right, not a single Friday, Saturday, or Sunday GDO. Non-inviolate days get moved according to company convenience and are worthless for life planning purposes.

ACARS notification was a stealth concession. In the air, a reserve has no way of determining that an assignment is legal, and/or assigned in the proper bucket, etc.

So-called contract "protections" for reserves go out the window in understaffed (wait, no, "properly staffed") situations, like last summer. 6 day continuous trips prohibited? Guess again- the company simply has to claim that a lineholder would be extended, or a trip cancelled, and they can have you as long as they want. Same thing for the moving of off days. Then, they only have to offer you a "selection" of choices for replacing the day off. Don't like their selection? tough titty.

Oh, and a reserve quality of life study group, that consisted of nothing but lineholders. Way to stay in touch with the hotbutton issues. I'm sure there was some good catering at the meetings at least.

 

You can NOT be serious! Please, tell me you're joking! In our contract if you have a day off rolled (lineholder* or reserve), YOU submit two choices and THEY have to pick one. Oh, and ACARS notification doesn't count. Just consider it a "heads up, the game is afoot" notification.

Wow...I didn't realize our contracts were so far apart on things like this. Bravo to whoever started this thread; comparing notes like this among us normal line guys/gals is invaluable rather than letting the ALPA insiders pick and chose what they think is important.

* lineholders have the option of having a lost day off restored OR they get 150% for the rolled day (better of block or 3:45 min day pay) UNLESS the lost day takes you below 12 days off, then you get BOTH!

 

Anyone who cared to could look at both contracts on the APLA website. They are there.

 

I didn't think I needed to because I didn't think the contracts could be so vastly different. Because of this thread, I am definitely going to sit down and compare them more closely.

 

I thought once you are on an assignment, the bucket is irrelevant?

 

True enough on a day-to-day basis. Both times it's been used on me it's been to lose the next day off. Would be nice to verify the utter lack of reserves to cover that day's flying.

I still believe that a reserve should be able to verify the FAA legality of an assignment before being forced to press the "ACK" button however.

 

You are required to NOT fly an FAR illegal trip regardless.