I'll be on Reserve the rest of my life!!!
 

Just wondering how long some of you have been on reserve and if I should embrace it or start to get frustrated. I'm not going to lie I am getting really burnt out on this reserve thing. My date of hire here at AWAC was June 25, of 2006 and I have flown less than 150hrs since then. I actually started reserve in September and was just awarded another reserve line for March... that is 7 months including 2 months of ready reserve!!!!

I don't suppose I would mind reserve so much If I actually got to work. The last time I worked was 2/1/07 and it was one leg from ORF to DCA. January 2nd was the last time before that. Basically I have only flown 1 leg in the last month and a half.

Currently here in ORF there are 74 FO hard lines and 22 of us on reserve. At last check I am #5 from holding a line, but there are 15 guys below me that don't have their 100hrs yet... I hear that our PHL FO reserves fly a ton (my sim partener from initial has flown nearly twice as much as I have), but I'm pretty sure I'll never fly again.

Please don't take this as complaining, but rather venting some frustration. I am very greatful to be employed here.

So here's what I want to know about the time you were on reserve...

1. Company, Base, and Equipment
2. How long you have been on reserve
3. When you anticipate getting a hard line
4. Do you actually fly on reserve
5. Any reserve horror story you may have

I'm glad awac didn't hire me!!!

6 weeks of reserve for me :) and I was flying 75 hrs a month

fire where at?

damn I have been on reserve here at XJT since late NOV, I will be off it next month, not to mention I have flown in excess of 90hrs a month while on reserve here, GO EXPRESSJET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saab, where are you sitting reserve?

EWR by choice, not to mention we have this thing called Agressive pick up window where any opentime that is available on your reserve days, you can call and pick up, I have picked up all of my reserve time I pick the 4-day trips with the most block, later shows, and good overnights, works everytime, not to mention my perdiem check for last month is around $650.00. non TAXable baby

It could be worse. I left being a Chief Pilot with weekends and holidays off to come to AWA. It's now almost 3 years of being on reserve and the only thing that's changed is my badge says US Airways. At least the Delta deal fell through.

hahah at least you can sit there for the rest of your career and not have to worry if BIG MOMMA CAL is going to take all of your flying away and give to crappy regionals that will do it for cheaper:p

Outstation base reserves fly less than domicile/hub reserves because the only way to get an outstation-based reserve into an assignment is via a dropped trip/sick call or elsewhere with a deadhead. If you were based in PHL (or DCA) you'd almost be guaranteed to fly more. I commuted ORF-PHL last spring on an airplane that had four (yes, FOUR) full deadheading AWAC crews. You can't tell me US Airways likes that.

Hopefully the next few weeks will shed some light on the year to come at AWAC regarding the grievance remedy, a possible fourth domicile, attrition, etc.

Things are stagnant right now and that sucks when you see fast movement elsewhere...but I honestly do think things are on the upswing.

I suppose I don't have it so bad... I'm sure a lot of guys at the majors have had many years of reserve. I was actually talking to a United Airbus FO who was one away from furlough after the last round... he was just now holding a line after 9 years!!! I guess here at the regionals we have a false sense of seniority progression sometimes.

1. Mesa, CRJ, out west
2. 2+ years (with no end in sight) before I quit
3. I went to another airline and got a hardline
4. I did fly regularly, but it was usually one leg, with a deadhead and a long layover somewhere nasty...or a camping trip.
5. Well, it was mesa...combine mesa with a reserve and it was all pretty horrible :mad:

Hey man I know it sucks! I'm guessing you live in base because you are ORF based.

Let me help you rationalize it - who is smarter:

• The guy blocking 75 hours/month getting paid for 85
• You blocking 2 hours a month getting paid for 75

?

Once I got off reserve and got a hard line life sucked! Seriously! Because you are a junior lineholder most times you end up with 75 hour credit lines. There's nothing more depressing than 75 hour lines! You get paid the same if you work or not!

Let me clue you in on what I did - once I got a line I went relief - bid LC - and started blocking 95 hours /month working 4! Now, they've gone senior because people figured it out LOL. In fact, relief lines used to be so junior that some reserves would get them every month.

Another thing - while you are not doing anything but sitting on the sofa - jump start some business opportunities. Work to learn while you have a chance, don't work to earn. Get your RE license - I know a guy sitting reserve doing 2 houses a month, which boils down to about $6k/month in commissions. He even bids reserve on purpose so he doesn't have to work.

Above all - know it will end. In the summer flying will pick up considerably. Looks for lines to increase out of ORF, also look for an RDU base. You heard it here first.

Actually I commute out of STL, but you're right. If I add up what I've actually been paid total and divide that by flight hours it's kinda funny... over $80 per hour to fly here... before Decmeber it was around $250 an hour!!! ;)

Good Post though... thanks for the encouragement.

What intel do you have about RDU?

Ah OK then it does suck! Although I hear some lineholders are going to reserve because they can get a late callout the first day and early release the last day, making it commutable on both ends.

Just second hand info from a union guy. I'm hoping for it. You can get a nice home down there for $120k! Damn that's cheap. I'm used to crackhouses for $180k up here.

That is a myth... They will always find a way to screw you. Usually you can get released early your last day, but never do they make it commutable on the front... even if you ask very nicely. The one leg I flew in the last few months was after sitting a month. They gave me one leg on my last day with a 1640 show time... after getting to DCA they still would not release me from the DH which would have put me back in ORF around 2100!!! The dumbest part of the whole deal was that there are 7 FO's on reserve in this crashpad and we all know each others schedule, but crew scheduling still makes up $hit rather than helping you out. Any one of those guys could have done it. Some of the stuff they have pulled is absolutely ridiculous as if someone in ATW walked in and told them to make the reserves in ORF miserable... I know this sounds like an exaggeration, but unfortunately it is not.

I really don't want to make this a "***** about AWAC thread", so I apologize.

FOSTERS has the right idea............about that anyway, I would rather be on reserve living in base, having a late call out, so I dont have to fly, still get paid, and pick up open time whenever I want, in the summer I will bid back to reserve so I can hopefully have the weekends off :)

SAAB, I was under the impression that reserves at XJT can't pick up open time? Is that true, and why? I made some nice extra money on the side here picking up time on days off on reserve.

We can, but we have to call from 9-10 the day before if you are long call, 10-11 short call. So for example if you have a block of reserve days lets say its 4 days, you can call and pick up a 3-day open trip or 4-day that begins the next day, so you cant pick up a 2 day if you have 4 days left. If you have 2 days left yopu can pick up a 2 day or 1 day trip. I kinda botched the explanation but essentially you are able to pick up open time the day before the pairing starts if you call in the AM, and it fits your days on, within 1 day or so

Oh OK I see. Yeah I heard you can't pick up time on your days off for 1.5 pay. That's what I was thinking when I typed it out.

I didn't fly a lot on reserve here so I would pick up a 3 or 4 day on my days off - it helped the paycheck considerably.

yeah I want to bid for weekends off in the summer, and looks like the only way I will be able to do that is if i bid RSV, but i would like a relief line cause then I can pickup, trip trade etc.... and I hear that makles it a completely different job, so well see

Well, I am a FEB 06 hire, still on RSV, PHL based. I also am sick of this rsv stuff, but thing will change when we get the old contract back, as well as the $42/hr they are going to be paying (I am an optimist). As far as that not commutable on the front end of a rsv sequence, 95% of the time my first day is either 11am or noon, and day 5 being done at noon. As far as RDU, my crystal ball says it will open in May, with 50 crews, and PHL will be shrunk AGAIN to 100 crews. I could be wrong about that, as I got my crystal ball at the same store as Boiler ;)

Your ball is pretty clear, although I don't know exact numbers I also heard the flying will be pulled from PHL.

Isn't second year pay under the old contract $39.39/hr? That's what it's listed as in copy I have.

Hey I resemble that remark!:D

I also see $39.39 as 2nd year CL65 pay under the 2001 contract...

Yeah the 2005 rate, but the provision in the contract says after 2005, 5% raise, plus the 1.5% COLA this march, so my rough estimate would put it in the neighborhood of $42/hr

Where is this "provision" you speak of? A search of the 2001 contract emailed to us this weekend comes up empty...

Our reserve Capts and F/Os have been timing out at 90 hours a month, usually with a couple days left.

Its all a question of staffing.

Unfortunately, I do not know exactly where I saw it, it was pointed out when a CA I was with the other day had a copy of the contract. I will try and find out where it was, as I just looked at the copy emailed to us and did not see it......

Unfortunately the last number I heard was that we were about 40 crews too fat... ugh.

That's why you're not flying. Don't make too big a thing about it. Its better than being furloughed.

We were probably overstaffed that much a couple months ago, but, at least in PHL, it seems as it is getting back to normal staffing. I have worked EVERY RSV day this month (cept today) and they told me yesterday that they were really really short again. Who knows what the powers that be up in toontown have going on, I think the old saying that "no news is good news" applies. In the history of this airline, every thing that has happened has not even been rumored, SO that being said, we will see what the future brings....

Yeah it's definitely not in there. Maybe he was thinking the current contract? The "old" contract was set to expire in 2006 I believe.

A CA I flew with said that 2nd year pay would be in the ball park of $42 as well (using a similar formula as mentioned previously). She had a copy of the old contract. Anyways, other than that I haven't even seen the contract but if I talk/fly with her again soon I will ask her because she was all over it!

:mad: So everyone is complaining of being on reserve for a year or so, huh? I am at CMR and I have been on reserve for 5 out of the 7 1/2 years I've been here. I did a year as an FO and now I have done 4 years as a captain with no end in sight. :( I am pretty burnt out but I have managed to handle it by using the thought that while I am on a reserve day, I am the companies to abuse. People who think they are going to get to go home at the end of a trip while on reserve are just kidding themselves.

J

Check your email - JE, the ORF rep, sent out an ALPA blastmail.

Pinnacle
After OE I sat the first month in DTW on reserve. Got a hard line the following month. Moved to MSP and sat reserve for one month. I should have a hard or build up line next month.

Well, I have been on RSV for over a year now...but it's by choice. Many of our lineholders have 75 - 80 hour lines and I get more nights at home with the wife than about 60 - 70% of the line holders. several bids back I got over 20 nights at home :). There will be a time in the future that you will wish you could be at home more and still getting paid. How many jobs can you just chill while getting paid. For te reserve's that want it, you can get called EVERY day to work. I personally want nothing of that. I always bid to call me last and they still worked me 80 hours last bid. I think there was a lot of vacations over the holidays. Next week they already have me scheduled for 33 hours in 4 days + DH pay. That's over $1000 for 4 - 5 days work..not too bad.
At our comapny the FO's are always very junior while the CA's tend to be more senior. About 30% of our RSV CA's could bid CRJ CA over at Mesa and would double pay easy but they choose to bid RSV on the 1900. That kinda makes you wonder doesn't it :) . Actually they are probably scared to work under Mesa and would rather stay Air Midwest. Our most senior RSV CA has been here for over 20 years. :eek:

i was on reserve at pinnacle for 6 months and flew 90 hours every month. What a difference in companies

So here's the story of screw scheduling this morning already...
(names are made up)
4:15am- Jon gets called and asked to break contract and show up in 1 hour for a DH to DCA, flight to MKE, DH to PHL, DH To ORF.
4:50am- Jon calls back says he doesn't want to break contract and asks if a ready reserve can cover it to which scheduling replies..."he's already been called out"
4:51am- Jon calls the ready reserve FO only to see if he indeed was called out... the answer was no.
5:25am- Jon goes to airport for DH to find out it has been cancelled
7:01am- I get called out for a Repo and DH back
7:45am- Jon decides to leave airport and come back to the crashpad
8:00am- Jon is walking in the door in uniform as I am getting ready to walk out and we both wonder where the logic in crew scheduling really is. To us it made more sense to use the guy at the airport in uniform rather than calling out someone else...

The real question is... why do they flat out lie to us?