Alright, we all know that reserve sucks. I searched for two things: #1 was a comparison of reserve work rules & #2 was comments of what reserve is like, but didn't really find anything objective.

So again, is there anyone out there who has recently been on reserve, or is still on reserve, that would be willing to share?

Rules are rules, but it would be nice to see a comparison of value of days, min days off, is it a bucket system, how do you bid, is it long call or short call, how long you could be on call, etc?

Life could be things such as: What does your average monthly schedule look like (4 on 3 off, etc), average number of days off, average number of days used when on duty, pay relative to guarantee, sitting unused for 10 hours and being called out finally all the time, whatever...

I'm really interested in UAL, NWA, and DAL, but for everyone's interest it would be great to see what every airline has.

Thanks!

SWA Reserve has been good for me so far. I've been doing it for almost 2 months now. Here's some of the details for SWA...


- It's typically (3 on 4 off) or (4 on 3 off) depending on what you want and what your seniority will hold.

- Most Reserve Lines for the month guarantee about 90-96 trips, which equates to about $4400 for the month for a 1st year F/O.

- I bid PM Reserve and my time of eligibility is typically late AM to just after Midnight.

- SWA is really good about using the Reserves AND giving you ample time to know what your trip is (typically 12+ hours notice).

- If you weren't given ample notice to the trip, then 2 hours is the contract for when you have to report in after they call you.

At Delta you bid for a line on reserve vs. PBS if you can actually hold trips. The callouts are 12 hour notice for long call, 2 hours for short call. 18 on call days in a month, with up to 8 being short call. International reserve pilots can be on short call for 24 hours due to different rules.

Usage varies greatly by category, base and time of year. The guarantee is 70 hours. There are ways to work the system if they are short on reserve pilots to greatly exceed 70 hours.