At TSA, airport reserve means you have to be within 15 minutes of the gate. Home reserve gives you an hour and a half. The home reserves are the ones who generally get called first, since we try to keep the airport reserves for an absolute last-minute emergency.

 

I have been sitting reserve for almost a year now...WAIT, it is by choice I can actually sit at home since our reserve domicile is MCI. I have 90 minutes to get to the airport if I am quick called. However I have only been quick called 1 time since I have worked for this company. I have some months where I still get my check but was able to just hang out for 20 - 25 days of a 28 day bid. However, the past few bids have been rough and I only sat 2 days in the last 28 day bid. Probably due to timing out of other pilots and vacations in the holidays. If you have other things you like to do reserve can be nice. 95% of our reserve CA's can hold a line but choose not too for QOL. FO's are different...they just want to work...That just confuses me

 

So on these reserve schedules that people take by choice, do they pay the same as an actively flying bid? Or do you just collect per diem and the monthly guarantee? If the pay isn't much different, it would seem that there is some hope for us family guys (and you gals out there) to be home more. Or have I misunderstood the pay structure?

 

Xtremef150, Who Do You Fly For? I Would Like To Graduate And Stay In Kansas!

 

Most reserve lines have a reserve guarantee (usually 65-75 hours) and you get paid that no matter how much or how little you get called out. No Per Diem unless you're actually working. In most cases per diem ($1.50 - $2.00/hour Time away from base) can add up to an extra $400-600/month (tax free unless you go places where the IRS per diem is less than actual) and that can be significant especially on first year pay. Also, you are usually on call more days (18-20) than you would if you actually held a line (say 14-16 days/month). If you live in domicile it can sometimes be really good (you may only fly some turnarounds, etc) - if you live out of domicile then you need a crash pad and it ends being pretty bad.

Most of the airlines are working to get more productivity from everyone and no one wants to pay you to sit at home.

 

Reserve in general sucks. You're the company wh0re. It does have certain perks though, especially for pay. As long as we show up, we get 4 hours of pay. I had 3 days last month where all I did was show up for stuff that never happened and then commuted home and nabbed 12 hours for it.

Commuting on reserve has ups and downs. The downside is being bored as hell sitting in a crashpad and getting flown all over the system to pick up random legs/trips that no one wants.

The upside is crew sked will sympathize with your lowly exsistence, deadhead you out of your home airport instead of base, and you usually make it home on your last day of work. The entire time I sat reserve, there was only one day where I had to commute home on my day off. Now that I'm a line holder...I have to use days off for every commute since my line is almost completely uncommutable....but it pays more.

 

My buddy that is flying for Continental now said that when he was flying for Pinnacle and was on the reserve line he would bid flights on his reserve days off so he ended up making quite a bit more money? Does this ring a bell? How easy is it to do this?

 

Maybe if you didnt have a family already and didnt already have a second job like the National Guard wher eyou get a supplemental income

 

I plan on being a fishing guide once I get back home and living on the water lol. I always liked it.

 

Well, you do get less guarented days off, but sometimes you can get a lot more days off than a line holder, at least in our company. We do only get 76 hours paid a month unless your credit time goes over this. However, about 30 - 40% of the line holders don't break the guarentee anyway. This means if these guys fly 60 hours they still get paid the same as a guy like me that spent my time going to the gym or working on the house...basically enjoying myself. Just limits your drinking nights since you are on call.

Oh and you can request to be called last or called first based on your seniority and whether you want to work or not