Reserve - how does it work
 

correct me if my assumption is wrong. because im not 100% sure how reserve works but i think i have a good idea.

Here goes... when on reserve you sit around and wait for the airline to call you and tell you they need you to make a flight, you dont have a regular schedule to stick to and it is unpredictable but you have to be able to report to work within 2 hours (typically). Most pilots sit on reserve for anywhere between 6 months to 6 years or more depending on the company. right? The pay for being on reserve is for 70 - 75 "credit hours"... Does that mean you are paid for 70 - 75 hours per month regardless of whether you get the chance to fly them or not??

also if anyone is on reserve, how many actual flight hours do you get to spend in the air on average per month?

thanks

You've got the general idea. I don't think you can really say however that "most pilots sit on reserve for anywhere between 6 months to 6 years." It's totally dependant upon many circumstances. And that's assuming you don't want to sit reserve. At UPS, many people chooses to sit reserve even though they can hold a hard line.

Pay is typically your monthly guarantee...whatever it is at your particular company. I suppose you can say 75 hours is ballpark, but it depends upon the company. Many contracts have ways you can work the system to get paid more than the guarantee without actually flying as many hours. For example, if your guarantee is 75 hours and you don't get called to fly at all during the month, but you pick up a 5 hour trip on a day off, you could be paid 80 hours. You'll also get per diem for the days you do work.

As far as schedule is concerned, you know what days you're available and what days you're off. Every company has a different way of assigning your availability during your "on" days.

How many hours do you actually fly? Again, completely dependent on circumstance. Could be close to nothing or could be more than the guarantee.

EDPM

Can I just get this straight. As a new junior FO you will still get paid the 75 hrs ie *guaranteed* whether you fly or not?

Further how does the time work in a day. For instance if you are on reserve on monday clearly you are not supposed to stay wide awake drinking coffee until someone calls for 24 hours so how long of a time are you "on call"

Second question is at what point do you move up out of being on reserve and holding a line.? Is it the number you receive which somehow qualifies you in a bidding system? I really dont get this part. Once you are holding a line then I guess no more reserve you are just assigned 75 hours a month?

Almost 10 years......a record?

Yes, you make whatever the monthly guarantee is no matter what. If you actually fly more than the guarantee credit, you'll make what you actually fly for the month.

Most companies have reserve availability periods or something of the like. You're on from 4a-4p, 9a-9p, etc. You'll know when you're on and when you're off.

When you're hired you get a seniority number and join the bottom of the seniority list at that company. Reserve tends to go junior, meaning those at the top of the seniority list bid for a line, or a set schedule of flying for the month. The #1 pilot gets their first pick, then the #2 pilot gets their pick of whatever is left over and so on until the lines are taken by the pilots that bid for them. Generally the pilots at the bottom of the seniority list are left with reserve. You can hold a line usually after enough pilots are hired after you to move you up the list to the point where you are senior enough to hold a line.

That's the general idea anyway!

2 hr notice is rare. At many companies it's 12 hrs + notice unless assigned shortcall which is then reasonably available ie approx 2 hrs but many times short call still get 8 hrs notice etc. shortcall is assigned a few times a month depending on your contract.

2 Hours is not rare in the regionals. Many have long call, but the majority will be short call and the long calls are limited and will go to the senior reserves.

2 hour notice is standard at AS except for the 'long call' lines. As far as how many "hard" hours you fly it entirely depends on the staffing and schedule of your individual A/C and seat position.

At one time while on reserve I averaged 10 flight hours a month for 75 hours guaranteed.

Ok sorry to go back to this again. But if seniority is just the ability to bid certain trips etc. Do you bid up to your 75 hours per month? Following that then there is no real difference between holding a line and being on reserve other than the fact that if you hold a line you have the ability to bid for better work periods and you have more control over what they will be instead of the table scraps that are left over? Please correct me if I'm wrong here.

At my company (and many others I've talked to) you're paid 75 hours regardless of whether you fly at all that month. There are pay incentives if you get used more than 75 hours.

We're able to bid AM, PM or long call reserve. Each reserve period is 12 hours. AM reserves are on call 4am-4pm with a 2 hour call out. PM reserves are on call 9am-9pm with a 2 hour call out. Long call reserves are on call 24 hours per day during their reserve days but they get a 12 hour call out so no you don't have to sit up drinking coffee all day.

Normal reserve schedules are 4 days on reserve then 2-4 days off. If you're on reserve you're not on call 24/7 all month. You're only on call on the days you're scheduled to be on reserve during the times (AM or PM) that your reserve is scheduled.

For a reserve (at least at my company) seniority just determines how good of a reserve line you get. Long call reserve goes senior. Reserve lines with weekends off will go more senior. If you're at the bottom of the list you typically get short call on weekends. Once you're senior enough to actually start holding trips you become a lineholder or a composite line holder (half trips half reserve).

And when you "hold trips" are they basically yours forever until either a. the schedule changes or b. someone more senior outbids you for it? Oh man I think I almost have it.. Thanks

No.. They are yours for that month. Next month if 15 people senior to you transfer into base you go back to reserve. The trips change every month and you bid for what trips you want. The bidding system then disregards your whole bid and assigns you some BS.

To the OP, you've pretty much got the general idea of how reserve works. But keep in mind, ALL contracts are different. Especially as it results to the response time, 1.5 hrs in some cases, 2.0 in others, etc. Some have different rules for airport standby, mostly how long. Also, the long call provisions, etc.

Since this is in the regionals, reference the above. 2 hr notice is quite common. And although some regionals have long call, it's NOT like some legacies where ALL pilots are LC starting off. It's usually a limited number of slots. However, like a legacy, a LC pilot can be converted to SC. However, the LC notification usually applies, and sometimes there's a restriction on how many times the pilot can be converted in the bid period. And with 117, I believe that at a pax carrier, it would now be 10 hrs notice at a minimum for the "release to show to include the rest period before starting the FDP", etc.

I'm on a 2hr shortcall 4am-6pm. Usually I'll get my call at about 04:05 telling me I'm airport reserve 8-4pm. I did just get a 4 day trip call at 04:10 with a 6:15 duty on but that's about as close to 2 hours it's got for me.

Back in the 90's I worked for an airline that had hot reserve. 'hot' being that you actually sat at the airport instead of at home.

I used to bid reserve on purpose. I did that for a year back in the 90's so I could day trade at home.

Sometimes you will be on reserve say for 12 hours, and then in hour number 11 of sitting around you get the call for a trip that makes your day a few hours longer.

I believe that AE has entire reserve lines for the month that are hot/airport standby lines. Most, if not al regionals still have it. Although the time length of the period varies greatly, the credit, etc. As well as how many times, if they can assign it consecutively, etc.

And if you were way back in the 90's, remember before the change to the rule that for domestic for reserves? IE; a reserve period/RAP WASN'T considered "duty", even hot reserve. So, get to the airport at 6 am for a 12 hour period, THEN get called at 17:55 to fly 3-4-5 legs till midnight into a reduced rest overnight, uggghhhhh..........

I assume you're talking about a legacy? At the regionals Our reserve call out is 1.5-2 hours, and not only that but we have no limit on the amount of times they can put you on airport standby in a month. Almost every reserve call you get ends with 2-6 hours of airport standby. At my airline it's common for them to call reserves at least once a week and put them on just 8 hours of airport standby with no flying assigned.

Legacy contracts don't seem so bad now eh?

At 9e we have 75 hour guarantee, and every month they seem to use me for 70-74.5hr so I never break guarantee. I can count on being called every day, and very rarely have it be an overnight so most nights I am in the Crashpad. 3-9 times a month I will get an 8hr airport reserve (contractually limited to around 10 times a month, iirc), otherwise it's a 14hr reserve with a 1:45 callout. We have provisions for long call in our contract, however they are only triggered at a high staffing level, so we haven't had long call in years.

There is one important thing to know about reserve. If you do not fly that means you are responsible for your sleeping arrangements if you don't live in base. That means living in a crash pad or paying your own hotel.

Ding Ding!

Hotels used to be cheaper (at least in IAD) back in 2011 (~40) not so much now.

You may even need your own car.

If you are on day one of a four day reserve block (assuming long call) and get converted to short call, does that apply for just that day or are you now short call for all four days?

Varies by contact.

So, they could call up, and say "we're converting the rest of your block to short call, with a callout/RAP time of (whatever). They usually need to give you the contractual notification required. The place I worked, it was 12 hours. So at midnight on your first day you go on availability, with the earliest show being 12 noon. So say it was day 1, you're sitting around and the phone rings at 3pm. "Hi, we're converting you to short call, with a rap starting at 3am". The 12 hour long call notification was met. OR, call you at 00:01 on day 1, say "we're converting you to short call, with RAP starting at 12 noon". Again, where I work, you could ask to be put BACK on long call, but good luck.

But again, it's ALL in the contract wording.

I am new to regional airline and will be on reserve for a while and I will be commuting.

So as per my understanding, they is three kinds of reserve, long call reserve, short call reserve and airport standby.

If i get a crash pad, it is advisable to stay at the crash pad for the short call reserve. For the long call reserve, i can stay at my home and after i get called in I have 6-12 hours to show up at the airport. Is this correct?

Reserve while commuting would not be fun for sure.

Thanks

Sounds like you got it. Each airline is different though in their policies so check them out before going to work for one.

Long call may not give the flexibility you think, depending on how long your commute is, when your commuting flight leaves and what the requirement is for having available commuting flights to get to work.

For example, if you're notified at 00:01 base time and the first flight from your home doesn't leave until 9:00 base time, then you have 3hrs. Doesn't sound bad, but what if the next flight doesn't go until 10:00 or later base time? You generally will need 2 flights available to get you to work on time and that will make it impossible for a commute over 2 hours. Of course, there are always sick calls, but you can probably get away w/ that once while on probation the first yr. Some people are able to commute cross-country on Fed-Ex during the night, and make it work, but that is really exhausting.

Thank you Tom and Bedrock.

Yeah need to look at the contract. When ALPA did they powerpoint during the new hire class, they didn't had hard copies of contract for us. (Apparently they ran out of the printed copies)

But will figure it out.

Mostly true, but again, varies by contract. At some, both a long and short call pilot can sit airport stand by, others a LC can't sit airport standby.

Again, this is MOSTLY true.

However, due to things like 117, if ALL the junior lines have non-commutable pairing on BOTH ends, you'll be giving up time on BOTH the front and back end. Whereas on reserve, depending, you might be able to at least commute on same day on the front end.

All true. Also, say it's a 12 hour notification. One commutes in on day 1 for a 2-day trip. Day 2 finishes at 18:00. Pilot gets assigned a 6:00 show the next morning for another pairing. Not like one can commute BACK home, then make the show, etc.

So it's usually just good on day 1, and most times the last day, assuming you haven't been used as usually a LC pilot has an earlier release time on the last day than a short call pilot.

How do you go about finding/listing for the jump on Fdx or ups. Never tried that before but sounds like it could be a life saver if all else fails.

That seems to be everywhere. I was based in SFO for about a year and when I started there our crew rate was $45/night. By the time I left a year later the hotel had raised the rate to $70/night.

Fedex: 866.357.5711

If you list on them, I believe you have to cancel if you aren't going to be able to make it. Don't do a no show.

One of try most important things about using a FedEx JS; if things change and you're no longer going to using them, CALL THEM AND TELL THEM SO.

Start here
Jumpseat Finder

Then call the number above. If you already know which flight you want then you can just call.

The difference between jumps eating on fedex vs aa/dl/us is that once you are booked the Jumpseat is yours, no one can bump you off even a fedex guy (well I guess faa could bump you). So you can consider it as serious as a missed assignment if you no show and you'll won't be able to use fedex again ever.