Welcome to the world of the airlines!!! One thing about reserve is that you can either let it make your life miserable, or you can just grin and bear it and make the best of it. The latter is the best option. Everyone (well most), knows the life of a reservist isn't a cakewalk, but their are things you can do to make life a bit better for yourself. The first and most important is to TREAT THE SCHEDULERS NICELY. They can either be your best friend or worst enemy. If you're nice to them, you'll get the best of the worst trips (and cream of the crop pairings do show up)....and vice versa if you're a horses butt to them. Scheduling knows the troublemakers and does little to help them out. DON'T get on their sh*t list!! Another thing is to find a nice crashpad that becomes your "home away from home". My advice is to find one with as few pilots in it as possible so you're not competing for a nice bed or quiet room for the night. You may spend a lot of time there so make it one you won't mind being in. If you pay a few dollars more, it may well be worth it in the long run! Good luck with your new career at DAL and have fun!!

 

I still don't get it.

WHY does reserve suck so bad that I would want to take an 88 over a 7ER? (besides the crashpad part) Why is it less predictable?...you know what days you will be on reserve, don't you? Do you end up away from home (as a commuter) much more on reserve than on the line?

 

Single, no commitments, live in base..... reserve is no big deal (perhaps a good deal).

Married, kids, commuting to reserve...... big deal.

It really depends on your situation if reserve is bad.

 

T-bone,

I'm at FDX, not Delta, so I don't know the ins and outs of your reserve rules. However, I have bid PM reserve in Memphis a few times and sprung for my own hotel. Here's some of the stuff I've done during that time:

1. Completed ACSC and about 50% of AWC
2. Written some of my courseware
3. Worked out at local gyms
4. Gambled at Tunica
5. Explored the countryside driving around on pretty days
6. Visited libraries
7. Gone hiking...
8. Pay bills, balance accounts, send overdue letters to friends, etc etc

You get the idea...

If you want to lay around a stinky crashpad smelling 8 other guys, you can do it. You can also spring for a nice pad with a room of your own or (in some locations...maybe not NYC) get a hotel at 40-50 a night. Probably not perfect as a new hire but once your salary pops up it ain't so bad.

I don't look at reserve as a bad deal--I look at it as getting paid to do what I want/need to do during that time. I used to do all my military queep on that time, so when I was home I could enjoy my time with family. No excuse for carrying lots of extra fudge around if you have access to a local gym--paid to work out doesn't stink either.

I think its a mind-set. I love to fly, but I also work for money. If the company is willing to pay me for not working some days, I can find something productive to do with the time. Some guys hate it--end up bored in front of a TV--but that isn't my style. This month I'm lucky enough to hold 24 hour callout at FDX, and the days I'm not working I'm paid to be working on our farm. You can't do that from the Langley area, but you can figure out some of the other queep you need to do in life and use the time wisely.

Also--like most new guys--you think about MONEY. You want to follow MONEY right now. After you taste being able to control your schedule a bit (something the AF never let you do...) you will start to like CONTROL, and you will resent anything that diminishes that control. That is probably why guys hate reserve more than anything besides time off....it takes away their ability to move trips, trade, and control their day to day life. You, however, have another tool (mil leave) that will help you manage your schedule. You'll be working hard as you do 2 jobs, but having done it 6 years I can also say you'll enjoy a lot of the aspects of both jobs too.

Good luck on your new adventures...

 

Reserve in a nutshell is sitting around on alert. You have scheduled days on and off. Scheduling will call you when they can't fill a trip with the normal person. Sometimes you get notice in advance, sometimes you get called last minute (around 2 hours). Not sure about passing on trips at Delta (I'm Fedex) but that can help with the quality of the trip you get. Otherwise you generally get a crappy trip that someone else doesn't want to fly. Crappy is relative to the time of the year. If the weather is cold and snowing in the NE there is a good bet trips in that direction will go to a reserve guy.

Reserve usually sucks because you are away from home waiting to be called to go to work. You know the days you are going to be at work but you don't know where or if you'll be going. If you live near your base reserve could be great (getting paid to stay at home and wait to be called).

If you have a regular line you know where you're going and when, although the schedule of days you have to work can be worse than that of a reserve line. At Fedex you can't swap reserve days for trips, so having a crappy line with trips allows you swap for other trips and to try and improve your schedule.

As has been said, reserve is what you make it. Go in with a good attitude and it makes the time go faster.

Hope this helps.

JC Dude

 

T Bone:

In my view reserve does not suck, especially when compared to the lack of control a pilot has over his life while serving his Country.

It is much easier if you live in domicile and can avoid a sometimes stressful commute as well as sit time away from home.

Delta's reserve system allows you to get into the system to see where you are on the list of reserve pilots and even put in preferences for trips you want, (which are sometimes granted depending on your seniority and other factors). Trading days off can be done but in reality, it rarely works out. You will quickly learn how to raise, or lower, your raw score and move around on the list to manipulate the system to meet your needs. (don't even worry about it until training is over)

As a new hire who only cares about Saturdays off, I bid and get what I want 50 to75% of the time. I also try to get certain trips and usually fly fewer legs than my friends who hold a schedule.

Your wife, or significant other, has similar pass benefits to yours, so they can meet you on a trip if the stretch away from home becomes too much. Delta stays in nice hotels on the longer layovers - the wife and I have seen Broadway plays, Disney, Boston and the San Antonio riverwalk while out flying reserve rotations.

Overall, I will probably continue to bid reserve until I can hold better trips. I fly a 2, a 3, or occassionally a 4 day trip usually only once a week with fairly senior Captains. Most days have a 12 hour call out - so mostly those days are a day off until assigned a rotation for the next day. It isn't bad.

The MD88 is the place to be your first year. The shorter trips, number of trips, number of legal combinations and quick seniority upgrade combine to make it a better choice than a jet with a smaller fleet, longer trips, and senior First Officers. It also helps to fly with Captains that have not completely forgot what it is like to be the new guy. Just my humble opinion. The 76ER guys may be enjoying much better beer and tell you I'm nuts.

 

Here`s one point that hasn`t been discussed. During your first year, you have no union protection. Firing you can be done quite easily. Missing a couple of trips because you just can`t make it to your crew base due to WX, full planes,etc. can get you in a world of trouble. Factor this in to your decision about commuting to your crew base. About a dozen or so of the previous posters have advised you to live at your base. That`s good advice.

 

TBone,

I used to fly for Delta, now I'm at UPS. I used to commute to reserve for almost my entire 6 year career at Delta, and while it did suck, you do get used to it.

I quit Delta in May '06, so I don't think any of the reserve rules have changed since then. I can't comment on international reserve since I was never able to hold the 7ER...but I do know that the rules are different. I believe the main difference was that Intl reserve had some kind of 24 hour reserve callout period. Maybe some Delta ER guy can comment.

Regarding domestic reserve...one of my commutes was living in SAN, and commuting to ATL (MD-88). First off, reserve is more unpredictable because you don't know if you'll be sitting in your crashpad twiddling your thumbs for a week, or flying every day. You have to be there the entire time either way. A line holder knows exactly when and where he is flying, and won't be commuting to domicile as much as a reserve guy....nor will he be sitting on his keister waiting for a phone call.

That being said, there are two types of reserve at Delta....long call and short call. Long call is a minimum 12 hours notice for a callout (usually longer). You can normally check your computer the day before to see if you've been assigned a trip for the next day. If you live close enough to domicile, you can stand long call from home (I couldn't do this while based in ATL and living in SAN).....which leads us to short call. You can be assigned short call up to 8 times a month, and must be "promptly available" (most Delta guys I know interpret this as a 2 hour call out). You are on short call for a predetermined 12 hour period (scheduling will call you, or you can check your computer). Unless you live in domicile, you will need to be in your crashpad (or nearby) to make it to the airport in time.

If I would have lived in ATL, I would have been sitting on my butt at home, instead of some skanky crashpad, or budget motel. This is infinitely better than commuting to reserve. Can you see the difference? Getting paid to hang out at home, and maybe called to fly, or spending 18 days away from home in a petri dish lab experiment of a crashpad waiting for a phone call.

One thing I forgot to mention.....while on reserve, the most days I ever had off in a row was 4. This equates to commuting to domicile approximately twice a week. If you get lucky and bid off days back to back (between two bid periods), you could have 8 days off in a row! Since Delta has PBS (Preferential Bidding System) now, you might get more days off in a row, I don't know.

Bottom line.....live in domicile, and your QOL increases tenfold.

 

No doubt about this post. I have tried the commuting life for a while and I am done! I managed to keep my family, but many don't. As for now, I am packing it up and moving to base. Picture the ability to go fishing, work in your home office or work shop or chill at home - all while being paid and sit on reserve. That is what making the best out of it is all about. I consider myself lucky for being able to make this move and look forward to sit on reserve at home. If you have ANY chance of living in base, do it! See if you can find one post on this board, or any other boards, that suggest commuting is a good thing and base your decissions on that. Lots of experience on this board from people that is willing to guide you in the right direction and help you out, take the advice.

 

Thank you brother. The lightbulb is now on.