Reserve
 

I keep hearing people say reserve at Spirit sucks compared to other major airlines. But nobody ever mentions why.

I am truly curious. could somebody please care to explain?

Will never understand where you find the motivation to constantly troll. He's not truly curious, let the tread die plz.

So before my furlough I commuted to R10 in FLL. It wasn't a super awful deal as I would stay at the Red Carpet if I didn't get called. Which only happened ~6-7 times per month bidding 'Call First' on every reserve day. To say I was hungry for flight time was an understatement.

Pros: Well, not much. Unfortunatly reserves were absolutly sold out in favor of high seniority line holders and THEIR work rules. In truth there is ALOT of disparity between being reserve vs. being a lineholder. Its almost like a different airline with initial open time, DTZ, and the like.

There is one sliver of a pro though. If you had say 3 days of RAP, the odds are HIGHLY in your favor you'll operate day 1 and 2, but 3 will be a DH back to base allowing you to commute back home on day 2 or early day 3.

I was told the reserve rules were gutted because some folks were 'checkerboarding' their reserve availability periods, honestly, good on them, I'll bet it was funny to watch.

Lineholders had access to DTZ, picking up trips, etc. We also had X/Y listing which was open to all pilots (regardless of rsv or line). But as routes were cut, that dried up very fast.

Cons: You cannot aggressive pick up (my friends at blueglobe call this 'Trip Proffering'?), you also can't pick up on offdays. You 'can' pick up reserve days, but if you take those reserve days from another base, YOU WILL SERVE THOSE RESERVE DAYS in YOUR BASE. This stunk because I commuted out of a NK base and wanted to sit reserve at home alittle bit, NOPE.

More cons, the company would call for a rsv trip and offer 'move up pay' which from my understanding was the companies way of circumnavigating the x/y list. Jury is still out on if that violates anything. LOL.

Overall, I'm happy for my time at NK. I do miss parts of it and wish I would have been there long enough to hold a line and see what it was all about. I mostly miss the crews I would work with (FAs included), it was such a unique and welcoming culture that I truly think doesn't exist anywhere. It's like we were all misfit toys. :D

But off to bigger and better things I suppose. I'm at a regional carrier where I can aggressive p/u AND p/u trips on off days, so things aren't awful. I'm happy with how everything eventually turned out. I know it sounds like I was hating on the MEC, I'm not, they've been informative and led with a gentle hand during this whole furlough process. I really hope a better contract is on the way over there. I miss spirit alot.

Youve worked here long enough and presumably can read the CBA. Just starting a thread to start a thread?

100%

NK arguably has the worst reserve rules in the industry.

If you dont know why, consider yourself lucky for avoiding reserve. If you are about to be on reserve, you are about to embrace the suck.
Ask a friend on reserve who is on reserve against their choice, ask why their job sucks and youll have your answer.

yes, I can read my contract. But I was specifically asking compared to other airlines.

wow, fear mongering. Oh no, you’re on reserve and you have to answer your phone.

everything you mention takes away from line holders. it’s reserve for a reason.

Ah….there is the troll.

You asked the pros and cons. He answered. I doubt he wanted to have a discussion on why you think reserve should suck to benefit line holders. Many of these things he mentioned is standard at legacy carriers and other majors. It doesn’t have to suck. It sucks because we sold out reserves in 2018.

you’re a troll.

Ah, the good ‘ol fashioned “it sucked for me, so it better suck for you” mentality. Making it better for the next generation would suck, wouldn’t it?