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?

This is terrible advice. Reserve in base is always better. Always!

And SC Reserve when you have to deadhead in is the worst.

No... no it's not. Unless you're holding the exact days you want off and want to fly 70-80% of them.

If you want control over when you fly, the trips you fly and layovers you get; having the ability to drop trips in your base and then pickup everywhere is a huge QOL enhancer.

If you’re a weekend lineholder in another base your ability to drop is majorly diminished. You may not be able to and you’ll get stuck commuting. Or what if you can drop but there is no open time in your home base? Commuting again. Or worst case what happens when the music stops? Would you rather be in the base you live in or stuck commuting to some other base potentially for years.

RSV in you home base is always better than being a commuting line holder.

LIMITED control over trip types and layovers of all things is the dumbest reason to be a commuter I’ve ever heard

I didn’t advise anything. I simply suggested to keep that in mind. In some cases it might be preferred and I’ve certainly seen quite a few pilots changes bases to get a line faster with the intention of dropping in base to pick up close to home. I don’t know the reserve times in all bases but if the time is significantly different and gaining control over your schedule is high priority that’s one way to do it.

100% disagree.

"live in base, SCR reserve forever, wear 2.5 hour leash" GTFO

I have dropped in my base and picked up in almost all of our bases for the last year and a half. Open time is full in every base with plenty of great credit and commutable trips. I pick up trips when I want to work; and don't when I don't.

But please go right ahead and keep sittin on your couch waiting for CS to call you for your next jungle turn that a lineholder dropped cause the grid was green...

I’m also interested to hear about Vegas. Is there ability to get long call pretty soon? I would be commuting from LA. I guess if utilization is pretty high at least I wouldn’t likely need a crash pad too often?

Question, can I pickup open time while on a vacation day or is it just x/y list that im eligible?

What if you were using this strategy in March 2020? Stuck commuting for years instead of stirring at home on rsv not getting used. Those events are not telegraphed so you never know when they might happen.

Ive never worked less or made more than on rsv in base. So if you get a jungle turn or two, you probably got paid to hang out at home the last four days with not flying at all. And you more or less avoid the jungle turns by bidding the correct rap although you may fly more overall.

Bidding out of the base you live in and can hold because you think you can do better or because you’ve actually done better for a period of time is mine playing with fire. You will get burned and it will hurt a lot.

Vegas reserves will be used more than other bases but it's also seniority based. Most times there's gonna be guys with the same buckets so the more junior guys will work instead. But you can also list for call first as well if you wanna work when you're more senior as well. If you wanna work more choose the day reserve periods like R5 or R10 and choose the redeye reserve periods to work less because of the duty time limits.

Vegas also has many more long call slots than other bases due to the amount of trips that start with a redeye. It's a 14 hr callout so it's pretty easy to commute with it.

Just X/Y lists.

I’m sure this question been asked a million times already. But I’m a new hire looking to start sept 5th. What would a realistic upgrade time for me being in IAH.
I’ve calculated it would be around 4 years. Of course, I know all this possibly changes with the jet blue merger. But is that realistic?

That's about right as of now...

If I had to guess it'd be over 4 years to be honest. Upgrades are right now in the 2100s and newhires are in the 3500s. There's not really any retirements and attrition is on the FO side mostly which hurts upgrades to keep the balance of CA/FOs. The company is slowly upgrading 10/month currently as well. By the time you'd be close to upgrade we'd be going into jetblue by then so it's up to them how fast to upgrade. Lots of moving goalposts with slow aircraft deliveries could hurt, age 67 maybe reducing attrition could help, and merger issues could be a thing too. But the job is still great as an FO in the meanwhile. It's been slower this month but before this, I was averaging 120/month for credit working a lot in Vegas (most junior base).

Also another consideration is how big IAH grows. Right now it's about 100/seat. Spirit seems to want to increase it a good amount and even does a good amount of Mx there too. Time will tell what jetblue's plan is with it.

Good luck

Something else worth considering is how many JetBlue pilots commute to Boston and New York that will then bid over to these Spirit bases and increase seniority in places like Texas while dropping seniority in places like Boston.

FYI- 2nd month on reserve in LAS, I’ve been used 10 days and 9 days respectively. R10 & R19.

What is the rough amount of time it takes to hold long call as a reserve FO? Thinking of ACY and FLL specifically

Nobody on this chat can answer your question regarding ACY. I think there has been one vacancy in the last 6 months. Regarding FLL I'd say 6-8 months but I'm too lazy to look it up.

that’s about right. Think 3-4 months of reserve. But buyer beware lcr isn’t that great. You’re the first used, get the left overs, worked more than scr and often don’t even credit minimum.

LCR is good if you can’t hold a line and commute. Not bc of our contract directly but just bc that’s how sport is choosing to use it. They have other options honestly but aren’t creative enough to use it better which would help them and us.

ACY is a flying club within an airline. Kind of like CLE at United. The first rule about fight club is…

Hi All,

I was offered and accepted a training date commencing October 9th. Really excited and looking forward to joining Spirit. Was just curious the likelihood of getting DTW right out of training. I asked and was told FLL/MIA, MCO and LAS were the most junior. I come from Canada where bases were specifically hired for or you could essentially just tell them where you wanted to go and theyd accommodate... DTW would be ideal with proximity to family and Ive never lived outside of michigan, but being young we're up for the adventure!

It took a classmate of mine 3 months/bids to get DTW. YMMV.

How long does it take for people in DTW to hold a line or at least LCR?

#makeDTWgreatagain

It IS a great neo museum right now and probably for a while.

On the October bid packet it looks like the junior line holder will be a July 2022 new hire.

How many hours a month can you expect to fly on reserve?

Depends on the base. I’ve got less than 20 this month with quite a few in the same boat. I know of a couple with zero.

which bases at the moment would be the fastest way to a line? I'll be commuting for a bit before I can move to a base