Reserve rules and junior bases
 

I’m assuming it would take awhile for me to get ORD or DET.

What are the reserve rules like? Assuming I didn’t need the money is dropping reserve days an option? If so can you pick up trips from other bases? Also what’s the earliest I could get reserve at either of those bases. Trying to decided if my QOL will improve or get worse as I’m not willing to relocate currently.

You cannot drop reserve. You cannot pick up trips on reserve. You can list for X/Y (premium) but it has to fit on your days off.
If you don't waive your 4 days off, you will work a 6 on / 4 off pattern. Keep this in mind if your asking for specific days off.
You list RAP's in order of preference, but get assigned what the software needs when it gets to your seniority. You get that RAP for the month.

Jr FO, eligible to bid in July, in ORD is 2/23 hire and Jr in DTW is 12/22 hire. You should have ORD by when you're out of training and DTW maybe a month or two after that.

Reserve rules suck, no dropping days or swapping days around. You can't pick up straight time but can list for X/Y list flying, which is at 200%.

If you're doing 6 reserve days and 4 days off, how often are you getting trips on the 6 days of reserve? I know it will be largely base dependent, but is there a best guess?

Spirit runs a barebones reserve staff. Plan on at least 4/6 on most stretches and you’ll get used all 6 sometimes. With all of the attrition, you’ll be worked hard.

There’s some nuance to it, sometimes it depends on which reserve period you cover or how much of your block falls on a weekend or holiday. I fly with a lot of new guys on reserve, some tell me they fly non stop, some wish they got called more. Attrition and growth have seen more reserve usage, I remember flying with new hires pre covid who would go weeks to months at a time between call outs.

To add to this. A lot of it is base, RAP, and day of the week dependent. Probably won’t be called Day 1/6 if you start on a Tuesday or Wednesday, but probably will if you start on a Friday or Saturday. Really just depends on the reserve bucket and where you are in-line for a trip.

DTW........................

very generally speaking expect to be used around 80% of your reserve days. Could be more could be less. Morning reserves tend to get used more from what I heard but you avoid most redeyes. Later raps may get used less but most trips will be red eye turns, base dependent. When I was on reserve I averaged 2-4 days of reserve each month where I wasn’t used.

in a lot of cases being a line holder in another base can be better than being a reservist in your home town. As a line holder you can drop and pickup out of base. So don’t just think how soon to hold dtw or ord but how long to be a line holder too.

How is reserve usage at LAS?