If you live in base, don’t care what days you get off, and don’t have kids I’d jump to the NB Captain soonest possible and rake in the dough. You’ll work a lot but you’ll be compensated for the work. Being junior on the WB is just as painful as being on the bottom as a CA… might as well make another 50K/year. Worst case you hate it… wait two years and bid the WB seat you want.

WB in base, especially during the slow months, is the best part time full time job in the world. Learn the rules and don’t let them push you around and you’ll be in DEN every 3 months for landings.

good argument, the only problem is junior capts on reserve would be line holders on the WB, and guess who makes more money? I have countless similar seniority friends I’ve compared this with, and those junior capts work harder and make less. Sorry dude, just facts. I suppose if I got a 70hr pbs line and never opened crew companion, then the pay rates would dictate otherwise. In reality, it just doesn’t work like that.

My experience living in base junior WB reserve FO?

A lot of work, a lot of the company violating the CBA, a lot of the company shifting work days. Kinda miserable.

Oh, you'll never work on RSV as a WB FO? Please....

You'll hear a lot of tall tales hear at UAL. Then again, my NB CA RSV buddies are often fairly unhappy.

A 2nd year NB CA makes 275/hr… WB FO makes $182/hr. The LH WB FO (your example) would have to earn 107 hrs of credit/month in order to match a NB CA getting the min guarantee of 73 hours. Add in 5-6 SCs per month as a NB CA on RSV and the WB FO would have to earn 113 hrs of credit to break even. There is no comparison on the pay… and a junior WB FO isn’t going to get any PP or SRM trips to offset the pay differences… that’s a pipe dream fallacy. Now if you want to compare a senior WB FO things are definitely different… but not for one below 70% on the G line.

union publishes the reserve utilization, I believe it’s 25-40% on widebody depending on time of year Some of which is aggressive pick up by commuters

Some data points for a junior NB CA. Flew everyday except for one when I got back around midnight on day 4 of a 5 day stretch. 5 shortcalls, 0 unused. Flown into FDO and got a day off restored. Got hit with visiting reserve three times when I thought I’d be deadheading home. All for 83 hours of credit plus a few add pay hours for reassignments (thought they were just for lineholders).

This place is so short staffed in the left seat. If you take the quick upgrade, be ready to work everyday, live close enough to the airport that driving 3-4 times a week isn’t too bad, work weekends, and pack for 6 days every time you leave the house. Yes, you’ll probably make more than a 2-3 year WB FO but you’ll feel like you work for Southwest, but they get 15 days off a month on reserve.

I had a pretty good idea what I was getting myself into, but there’s a good reason why there are so many unfilled NB CA spots. This summer is going to be fun…

Hmmm. If you work every reserve day (18 scheduled) in a given bid month your minimum pay would be 90 hours of credit before any add pay for reassignments, early SC reports for trips, etc. The probability of getting higher than 5 hours of flight/DH hours per work day is pretty good… so probably more like 95-98 hours if you were flown every day on reserve (18 days). So if you were assigned to work 17 of your 18 days of reserve the minimum LPV you could have earned would have been 85 (5 hrs/day)… and that would mean <5 hours of DH/flight time. So if you worked 17 days and only getting 85 hours of total pay credit (including 2 hours add pay for reassignments) something isn’t right and you should file a PDR and pay claim to get 2 more hours of pay.

You forgot the added $$ he gets for selling his soul.

true… price for everything in this business. We just hired a 22 year old new hire… next year he/she could be a NB CA at 23/4. A 25 year old without family can handle a lot of pain and reap some serious $ if willing to “sell their soul”. Old farts (35+) with spouse/kids don’t have this same flexibility… they sold their soul to the family.