I wouldn't say R03 is a competitive RAP to get. There seem to be more R03 lines offered than other reserve lines. An advantage is getting done earlier in the day on the last day of reserve. A disadvantage for commuters is having to commute in the day before the RAP begins.

Also depends on base. AFAIK in LAS most are R19.

I was just using it as an example, it’s not my particular preference, but everyone is different

R3

Pro- wake up at 10am and think “ah, just slept through 7 hours of my RAP”

Con-phone rings at 3am for an assignment and you curse the heavens while your sleeping wife tells you to shut up and that “you hardly ever work, stop crying”

Even with a 3am call, you don't have to be ready to push until 6am worst-case-scenario, right?

That’s correct.

I primarily had R3 and found that they had a trip for me to start almost every RAP. Twice I had unexpected MX flights, but usually I could look ahead and see what was coming. Is there a 6 am launch for a 4 day trip sitting in open time starting on day one of my Rap? Probably my trip of the week.

I
Declare
Bankruptcy!

Speaking of assignments, can you call scheduling and "proffer" or request trips from open time that match your RAP and days of availability? Like if there's two 4 day trips in open time on day one of my reserve block and start within my call out window, can I ask scheduling for one over the other?

Contract says you can preference but I don’t know how many use this in practice and it’s completely at schedulings discretion.

In my experience, the next day reserve preferencing is more of an annoyance to crew scheduling than anything else. Every time I tried it, they said they would have to check with some “planner”, you’d hear some murmuring in the background, and then get a polite no. They were short staffed when I was on reserve and were trying to always optimize open time usage, so your results may vary. My open time selections probably conflicted with their optimization goals.