On top of guarantee.

 

VDO = Voluntary Day Off?

Paid at 150% or 200% if you’re called or just straight pay above guarantee?

Is there a limit to how many VDOs you can do or could I VDO every day off when I’m on reserve?

 

Paid 150% above , add pay. Paid for entire trip, not just vdo day. Can't go below min days off which I believe is 8.

 

well, hang on now. If you VDO a day and it’s before your reserve block, and that trips starts on your VDO day, then runs into your normal reserve days, you get 50% for the whole trip. If you VDO a day at the END of a reserve block and a trip then takes you into that VDOd day, you only get the 50% for that last day.

 

I’m going to be commuting to the 777 and staying with family for my crash pad. Was thinking if I have 2 days off between reserve blocks to just VDO it. Was hoping I could pick up but I guess I can’t do that.

 

The VDO extra % thing only happens if scheduling calls and you accept the trip. That’s another thing about it. You don’t have to take the trip if you don’t want to (or, if you commute, maybe you just can’t make it). It’s no harm, no foul.

 

Delta: we get I think 14-15 days off a month. They can’t get give you a trip on your day off, but I think they can extend you into one (never happened to me). I live an hour from Newark and an hour and a half from JFK. Our short-call is promptly available (which everyone agrees is around 2 hours) from the nearest New York airport to your home, regardless of whether or not your airframe flies out of that airport. Short-call is I think a maximum of 6 days a month, no extra pay.

The absolute best deal at Delta is called rolling thunder. If you fly in your off days you get single credit above reserve guarantee PLUS you get your following on call days off. If you don’t have any off days at the end of the month those “pay back” days go into a bank and can be extremely valuable later in the year. If you’re local and flexible you can make a killing to work very little. My best month was 130 credit, 44 block, 9 days worked, month done by the 18th and I sat reserve for exactly zero seconds. The company hates this set up and are trying to get rid of it, but it was never a thing until they decided they didn’t want to staff categories properly.

I’ve bid reserve for the entire 5 years I’ve been here and don’t plan on switching it up.

 

I’m aware. Because I’m not living in a bunk bed in base I’d try and VDO during short time off stretches. If I get called great, if not I spend more time with my parents. Either way it works out. Not like I’m sitting on my ass in a crash pad with nothing to do bored out of my mind

Now the chance of me getting used on my VDO days? I don’t know. Probably not a lot but because they’re surrounded by reserve days maybe I have a higher chance. Not sure the priority and order of assigning trips to reservists and people VDOing

 

The straight pay goes towards guarantee, the 50% extra is add pay. You get your used VDOs restored which is why the entire line value of the trip is not above guarantee.

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Reserve here does suck IMHO.

We need to eliminate field standby as the only major who has it.

We should be able to pickup as reserves 72 hours out. (We can’t)

We should be able to move reserve days.

We should have at least 14 days off as Delta does, as stated above.

All aspects of the contract need to be definitive with absolutely no gray area for the company to interpret or we get hosed. And….be prepared to get hosed.

These things can and should all happen to benefit the United brand, reliability and the pilots but instead we have NTAC (no talent a$$ clowns) for our negotiators and union leads.

I hope this helps. I’ve been mostly on reserve and there is far too much gray area. Oh, and the guys around you on reserve, they will commit some serious shenanigans to maneuver themselves out of assignments at the last moments. Bank on it.