I would say 95% of the time you don't know.

check your schedule, it'll show NTY. then you check crewtrac. you'll know 95% of the time. It doesn't mean they've notified you yet, but if you look, you'll know

I agree with this....I can only recall a handful of times I knew the day before.

only seems to hold true for what's left over in open time the day before. acts of god and sick calls, obviously you're not going to know very far in advance.

contract only allows trips to be put on rsvs inside of 24hrs, so you may know the day before but never earlier

I have had trips assigned to me more than 24 hrs. The contract says “Current calendar day, and next day” For example, i can have a trip assigned this morning for an 11PM report tomorrow evening. It’s about 36 hrs out but still falls into “the next day” This is pretty common for trips in Vegas.

that is simply not true. anything inside 48 hours can be assigned. the reason they don't assign immediately but instead follow the NTY on flica is because the minute they assign the trip, you're off until showtime.

this way they essentially "assign" the trip without actually doing it.

I could be wrong but I think the main reason they don’t call to assign the trip is because you’re not required to answer your phone until your RAP begins. Once you self notify on crewtrac you’re off until showtime, so if that’s not what scheduling wants they aren’t gonna put it on your schedule and risk you self notifying.

FWIW I was on reserve as an FO for 6 months and didn’t get a single ‘get to the airport as soon as you can’ call.

It was either an open time trip that was on my schedule the day before (happened most often).
Or sit around unused

Yeah... but when you're on probation it only takes one.