They get people to move to Guam. They can presumably entice people into Newark if they want

 

What is it about UAL reserve rules that make it particularly undesirable? Commuting to reserve is no fun anywhere, but this forum makes UAL reserve to come across as particularly miserable.

 

They have hot reserve
They ( I think ) have more liberal ways to convert long call to short call
The widebody fleets (FO shortage there) have some loosey-goosey language about rearranging your work/off days to meet company needs
they have a hub in SFO
they have a 3 airport base in DC

 

Year 3 or so widebody FO pay will get you in the ballpark of ULCC captain pay, no? That's another option to get you to the money and may have more domicile options, and you can always move upwards to the left seat if you can get it in a vacancy.

It's hard to say how long quick upgrades will be around and how long newhires and very junior FOs will be able to hold a wide-body. If things stay on the pace that they're on, it should stick around in some capacity. If they fix reserve rules or concentrate more staffing away from the west and east coast to DEN/ORD/IAH that may also make things go more senior. The fact that there are higher paying positions going unfilled would suggest a lot of pilots are hanging on to a lower paying seat for QOL.

 

Also, be advised, they don’t have short call reserve lines like we do. They can convert you to short call or FSB though. Either way, for a commuter that’s better than what we have at F9. On the flip side, we can’t be touched on days off without compensation. But then again, that’s a 75 thing as opposed to NB.

 

I'm a lineholder now, but have been on reserve most of my career at United unless I was on furlough. I've done both widebody and narrowbody reserve. I've also commuted most of my career.

It's not as bad as people here make it out to be.
I've never been rolled on my days off.
I've rarely sat airport standby, which I would prefer over short call since I've had to commute to short call.
There are a lot of worse things in life than reserve at United.

 

Soo... you've never sat reserve at United?

 

I’ve have purposely bid RSV at United as a junior narrowbody FO, senior narrowbody FO, and junior 756 FO during the “slow” months of the year. That has allowed me to be home with my family and to be with our kids more than most pilots and easily more than most other careers. Yes, I’ve been rolled and yes it’s sucked at times but overall if you want to be home with the family it can be done. Compared to my peers that I was hired with I would say I’ve been home at least 50%-75% more than most of them.

So, YES RSV rules definitely need improvement and you could definitely get screwed, but having a good quality of life is doable *as long as you understand the rules!

BTW I live in base. No way I purposely commute to RSV under any current RSV system among the majors!

 

Isn't he talking about commuting to reserve? Yes, it sucks here and we have the worst of it outside of some shady outfit that I’m unaware of… but those factors wouldn’t be obvious as a non-commuter.

 

Long call reserve is supposed to make life easier for commuters. The problem is, the crew desk doesn't let many stay on long call. They can build short calls anytime they want at the last minute. One of the big problems is, the crew desk has no accountability. They can and do whatever they want when they want with little oversight, or reason. You can ask why they just built the 10th short call with only 5 departures, and they say because they can.

As far as rolling days off or working into days off, it greatly depends on your fleet/seat/domicile. It is a common occurrence on the west coast wide bodies, with rolling back to back short calls. So, you have to commute in--sit in the crash pad, then work into your days off. Some seats have a better reserve experience, some are a night mare. As a rule, commuting to reserve, especially wide body reserve is a really hard life and generally thought to be a bad idea--worse as a NH.

However, reserve in domicile can be a great life. Sit short call at home and get paid.

Bottom line is, yes, our reserve rules need some improvements. Crew desk needs accountability Only a few tweaks would make QOL much better with little impact on the company. Now....back to contract negotiations....