Better yet, pay NB captains more for accepting the responsibility that goes with the job.

Or just make reserve suck less.

I'd take both. More money AND better reserve rules. Not to sound greedy or anything. :D

This^^^^

Reserve shouldn’t be so punitive. The FSB/SC debacle should be corrected and not draconian.

Bottom line, your “competition” for NB captain seats are WB guys like me. Bottom widebody line older versus bottom captain lineholder trips just don’t even compare. If you’re going to be away from home for four days/3 nights, might as well make 25+ hours and get paid to nap for two legs, rather than doing 8+ legs with 14 hour overnights in BFE.

anything that sweetens the pot for widebody first officers or senior narrowbody FOs, by definition does not achieve the objectives on the company’s end. Throw in the fact that flowing crews through other domiciles will undoubtedly lead to more hotel stays in SF/LA/NYC. Three of the most expensive places in the world to pay for hotels.

A lot of our first officers who are hired just prior to Covid didn’t fly much in the last year and a half, so as they reach 500 hours and self certify, I think this problem will largely go away on its own

There are also people like myself who will be leaving NB captain seats to go back to the right seat of a heavy when their training freeze is up. I upgraded to avoid all of the international hotel room lockdown hassles. My thinking was that if I’m going to be stuck flying domestic while the dust settles, I might as well make more money. You’re absolutely right about the NB captain vs WB first. I commute and don’t pick up extra flying, so just based on an 80 hour line, I might make more money as a captain, but it is earned by making less per day and simply working more days.

"You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave! " :D

WB flying is like crack. Trips are commutable both ends, only 2 legs, sleep for no less than 1/3 of the trip, CPDLC does most of the work, you are always the priority flight, one bag drag for a long layover, very few chances for crew scheduling to mess with your schedule, you can get your hours in 9 days if you’re senior enough…….. just counting the days until I can pick up the pipe again.

This! 👆 Fixing rsv would fix the CA vacancy issue faster than anything. Fix global rsv and you would get people moving on both the NB and WB fleets

there isn’t a problem getting bodies in WB seats. The company is full steam ahead in training new hires on both WB fleets. Again, anything that makes WB FO more attractive is counter productive to staffing NB CA seats.