Junior 757 CA schedule
 

If you’re a junior 75 captain sitting reserve and you’re not on *call first*, how often do folks get called for a trip? Any chance to fly minimum?

Looks like higher utilization right now and has been for about the last 6 months.

We would previously have: 30+ RA, 15 RB, and 4-5 R24's
those numbers seem to have cut in half recently as guys vacate the seat on the Training Letter and are replaced at a slower rate.

After having been the only fat staffed seat for the last 2+ years, it appears that staffing is more aligned with their desired utilization. Your best bet is to get hours towards leveling and then hope to be lower on the list.

Best way to evaluate whether to Bid any Reserve period is to take a look at what's going on in the current month.
Can get an idea by looking at someone's calendar who's close to your relative Seniority...or take a gander at the Reserve Leveling page on VIPs-but that's more of a snapshot which might\might not be all that helpful.

Things to consider, we're coming into Summer where people actually Tend to use all their vacation and maximize days off so VTO's tend to be a bit better.
And SL utilization is likely lower (at least I've tended to be ill over winter months with flu\cold symptoms)

Also, as commented, next month the Company is soliciting Vacation buyback.

That’s a good point about the VTOs. I thought with openers starting in May we weren’t supposed to be doing buyback?

You have to remember that FedEx has one of the worst reserve systems at any airline. No you can't elect to fly the least.

Reserves lines are built so that reserve pilots are on call for 15 days in a 4-week bid period and 19 days in a 5-week bid period. This means, except for the few on R24, ALL PILOTS ON RESERVE WILL HAVE TO BE IN BASE FOR 15 or 19 days EACH MONTH unless they have met or exceeded their Reserve Line Guarantee (RLG).

"Callouts" get a bit tricky as FedEx breaks them down into Reserve Periods, the time period for which you are on call for and Reserve Status (RS) the time you have between notification and showtime at the airport.

Your notification period starts at midnight and ends at noon (RA). You have to be at the airport within 1 hour and 30 minutes of notification for MEM and IND. If you are on RB, your notification window starts at Noon and ends at Midnight and you have to be at the airport within 1 hour and 30 minutes of notification at MEM and IND. The notification periods don't change at OAK, LAX or ANC (midnight to noon or noon to midnight) but you have 3 hours to get to the airport once notified.

This is why I said nearly everyone on reserve at FedEx will be in domicile 15 or 19 days a month -- unless they met the guarantee or they're on a trip of course.

For who gets called first ...

1. Reserve pilots can put themselves on "First Fly" and they are assigned to trip before other pilots who have not elected First Fly. If two or more pilots have elected First Fly, then the assignments are given out in seniority order.

2. Trips and airport standbys with 60 hours Time Away From Base OR LESS, shall be assigned in leveling order as follows:
-The reserve pilot with the lowest leveling position within the Reserve Period shall be assigned first (no skipping)
-If two pilots have the same leveling, assignments are given out in reverse seniority order.
-A reserve pilot shall be given the reserve assignment with the highest credit hour value for which he is legal at the time of assignment.

3. Trips and airport standbys in excess of 60 hours Time Away From Base shall be assigned as follows:
-Among reserve pilots in the same Reserve Period, whose availability duration (in R-Days) most closely matches the duration of the assignment, the reserve pilot with the lowest leveling position shall be assigned first.
-If two pilots have the same leveling, assignments are given out in reverse seniority order.
-A reserve pilot shall be given the reserve assignment with the highest credit hour value for which he is legal at the time of assignment.

So as you can see, with the caveat of trip length, you can get called out of leveling order. Then there is this gem.

If a reserve pilot returns to base from a trip, and does not have another assignment in that duty period (DUTY PERIOD is key here), he may either be assigned to another trip that falls within his scheduled duty limits, or released from a legal rest period.

What does that mean?

For example a pilot on RA .... at Midnight he gets notified he's flying this example of a trip

0230 MEM - 0400 MSP
2210 MSP - 0010 MEM

So he gets called at midnight and within an hour and a half he shows at Memphis AOC at or before 1:30am. At 2:30 he blocks out and flies to MSP. At 04:00 he lands and heads to a hotel.

Then around 20:30 transportation arrives and he's back at MSP airport and at 2110 he's pre-flighting the jet and blocks out for Memphis at 22:10. The pilot then lands at Memphis at 00:10.

Within 30 minutes of any flight or standby, he is required to call Crew Scheduling. CRS can then assign another trip. He is then assigned another MSP trip. So at 0130 he's preflighting and 0230 blocks out to MSP again. Rinse repeat.

Crew scheduling can "hub turn" a reserve pilot up to four times without your permission -- as long as you have the reserve days.

Then we can get into pay. Reserve pilots are paid less than those who have a line for the same trip. It gets really complicated comparing the pay and how the two are paid and how the pay affects leveling ... but

Once average Bid Line Guarantee is figured, a Reserve Line Guarantee is calculated by taking 96% of the BLG = RLG.

Say the BLG for a 19-day month is 93:59. 96% of BLG is 90:15 (the RLG). Then you take 90:15 and divide it by 19 days which gives you 4:45 per day. A line holder is usually getting 6CH per day or more.

The trip guarantee goes towards a reserve pilots RLG but not into his pocket unless he goes over RLG. A reserve pilot does not qualify for several disruption pays or additional pay that line holders get.

**IM NOT AN EXPERT** ** I COULD BE WRONG ON SOME OF THE DETAILS ** ** ALWAYS READ YOUR CBA OR CALL CONTRACT ENFORCEMENT FOR ABSOLUTE CORRECT INFORMATION ** This is just what I've learned through the years.

The airline is understaffed right now. Tis not a good time to be a reserve line holder when we are understaffed. You're going to get used and abused. Worse, you're going to get revised out in the field and unlike line holders, reserves don't qualify for many disruption pays so you earn a lot less when they yank your chain.

And C2015 hosed reserve line holders by giving VTO holders with mixed lines (trips and reserve days) higher leveling. It means a reserve pilot will get called first and the VTO guy may never get called.

Nice explanation of our Reserve, but I think your description of the pay is "off" a bit.

A Reserve pilot sitting 15 or 19 days of reserve and never getting called to fly will earn an average of R-Day value (RLG ÷ # of R-days) each day. However, a Reserve pilot flying a trip is not paid less than a Lineholder flying the same trip. For a 6 Credit Hour trip, the Lineholder will be paid 6CH, and the Reserve Pilot will be credited 6CH towards his RLG. You might say he technically doesn't get paid anything, but that's being a bit pedantic.

Let's say a Lineholder and a Reserve Pilot fly 15 trips together. Let's say 14 of those trips pay 6CH, and the 15th pays 6:15CH. The Lineholder would be paid for 90:15CH, and the Reserve Pilot would receive 90:15CH credit towards his RLG. In the example you gave above (RLG = 90:15), that Reserve Pilot would have then met his RLG and would be off the hook for the remaining 4 R-days on his 19-day schedule. Two pilots, one a Reserve pilot and the other a Lineholder, same trips, same pay.

Oh, and if they happen to fly a 16th trip together, they still get paid the same.

Where the difference between Lineholder and Reserve pilot is magnified is when the Lineholder flies 12/15 days getting 6CH per day, while the Reserve Pilot sits reserve, doesn't fly, never being called for 15/19 days, and only receives the percentage of the BLG. In that case, the Reserve Pilot gets paid less but has to work more days.

You're correct, though, about the Reserve pilots not receiving disruption pay. A Reserve pilot, by definition, is expected to live in the world of disruptions.

You know what they say, though ... You only have to be junior once. ;)






.

FWIW-UPS Reserve System is very similar to FedEx's in regards to call out times.

In Normal times, boxes have guaranteed delivery times. Boxes might not *****, but sometimes they fly for free if they don't meet the delivery times guaranteed.

There are plenty of ways to protect the system and still improve reserve pilot QOL.

This isn’t a comparison between boxes and passengers. This is a comparison between pilot work rules.