With the amount of people on Reserve right now if I was in the Union leadership I would be very careful about making such suggestions. Especially with the overall lack of movement in the system. People might think More attrition will get us a contract faster. I would not agree. What it will accelerate in low time pilots in the Captains seat.

 

Can you please provide a reasonable example of how this affects premium? Reserves have 18/19 RDP per month - coupled with FAR 117 and CBA restriction available to CS, it is very difficult to actually swap reserve day or add on your days off. There is zero arguments to preventing anyone from picking trips up on their day off. GMAFB

 

The argument is simple If 30% of the pilots in any given base are prohibited from picking up open time. More open time will stick around long enough to become premium. With work schedules in some of the smaller bases there may only be a few pilots capable of picking up these trips. These Premium adds would also drop earlier to allow enterprising out base pilots to fill the void. This would prevent the possibly one pilot from holding out until the INC was right. With a little bit of networking and some collusion I could imagine some Big Paydays. Management would want something BIG to expose themselves to that. What makes me Personally Angry about it is the "hay why don't we screw over all these other pilots so I can get paid more" Attitude. I also know for a fact that there has been proposals for this position. I doubt they get much traction because again 30% of the company is on Reserve. Pare that with future upgrades who will sit Reserve and Union Members making these proposals could lose there seats.

I don't agree with this approach. It would require giving up some from all of us to benefit line holders. It's not good for the pilot group to be undercutting each other. It was in the previous contract now its gone and it's not coming back. With the limited negotiating collateral we have I would hope the members of the NC will work hard to improve all of our lives. Not kneecap pilots on reserve so they can pander to line holders.

Full disclosure I am one of the pilots on Indefinite Reserve.

I would like the NC to focus on Better Payrates, Benefits (LTD in industry), Bettering parings (more efficient use of our time) Redeye,321,International overrides, Higher Per diem (enough to cover gas and tolls and lunch on a day turn) Something for the reserve guys, Something for the +12 years pilots (extended payrates or more vacation) Some language the requires schedules to be build in a way that keeps us working inside a 14-16hr window (no 630 show with a 2230 show in the same trip.) A snap up clause or pay increase % per year after the contract would be nice to.

 

You know what else we should do to get more premium? Change the commuter clause rules. Commuters should be required to have 3 Frontier flights that get them in to base at least 3 hours early.

That way when 60% of the pilot group doesnt make their commute, or calls out sick, there will be plenty of premium open time for guys like me to pickup.

Commuting is a choice! Reserve isn’t! CHA-CHING bítch!

 

Brother, I agree with you. Harsh reality and sad truth, I don’t think anything in your last paragraph is going to happen. Sounds like you’re looking for one of the big four to be your new home. Or hoping to bring some if not all of those items here. I just don’t see it happening. I could be wrong but this place runs in a hope and a dream if guys would stop hoping and try to see what there options actually are they wouldn’t stay. Go and find guys who have left, it’s been my experience the ones I’ve talked to have said I wished I’d done it sooner. Yes they’ve admitted there’s some pain in the beginning but overall regret not leaving long ago.

 

Four days into 2026 and there’s already a certain MCO based captain on his 4th premium trip for the year.

Assuming he’s over 82, once you apply all the overrides, that’s 89 credit of premium in the first 4 days of the year.

I’m genuinely curious, what’s the secret?

 

Fast fingers lol

 

What's the difference between a reserve pilot picking up on their off days, and a line-pilot who bids above 75hrs credit? The reservists are only picking up what is left over from the line-holders. Reserve should not be a punishment, the rules should be such that it actually goes senior. We need better callout times (increases the chance of people commuting and it reduces the odds that someone is available to make it for premium.
Typically reserve pilots are junior (left or right seat), they have a higher probability of commuting (additional costs to account for), and they already get minimum days off. If they want to sacrifice an off day for some extra cash to cover the cost of commuting then I support that. To a degree I do think that we could meet somewhere in the middle and limit the total credit that a reserve pilot can pick up (straight time that is, premium is fair game), perhaps an 85hr credit cap or something like that.

 

Why not just make reserve so good that it goes senior?

 

Soooooo....fly in three weeks prior to report?