I also find reserve rules to be very beneficial provided you live local.

Out of interest on WB reserve, how often would you say your days off have been moved. Please cite equipment and domicile. I have been told it happens very rarely if at all for WB (idea being fewer sick calls with higher credit). However these new LAX 787 6 and 7 day trips worth 34:40 and 40:53 respectively ...I can see people calling out sick for that.......and potentially using reserves.

 

In ORD since the new rules only once in two years. Old contract two times a month. Anything more than a 3 day tens to be in open time for us unless it’s HND or TLV

 

Show up on time, where the captain/FOM tells you to be, sober, wearing the uniform items the company has given you and have a positive attitude and you’ve done 80% of your job as new hire FO. On reserve, the other 20% is dealing with gamesmanship of individuals who don’t completely follow the contract when dealing with you because they’ve been told the contract doesn’t apply to you. If you’ve spent a year at a 121 regional you’ll be well prepared for this.

Don’t be UTC- allow calls and txt from ccs and the crew desk to bypass all dnd settings on your phone and select ringers that will wake you up/be heard from another room. Keep in mind that while there is no contractual timeline to call the crew desk back on long call, the schedulers are under pressure from their supervisors to immediately UTC you to move on to the next pilot to fill a trip. There have been instances where it’s decided by a scheduling supervisor that 10 minutes is enough time on long call to give you before moving on.

Don’t miss a trip-In bases where CPOs have been hired to get rid of “bad apple” pilots, they love to remind you that the commuter clause does not apply to pilots on probation. Do more than the prescribed minimum in the contract to get to work especially since you can’t reserve the jumpseat in advance like other legacies allow. That includes heading in a day(s) early ahead of bad weather. Keep an eye out for messages authorizing positive space to your base for commutes line and reserve when weather is forecast to interfere with operations.

Call to get released early from reserve to make your commute home on short call days, don’t just hop on a plane and roll the dice you won’t get called out.

Verify the reserve availability list, where you are in it vs where the assignment should fall before acknowledgment of your trip. There have been cases where pilots get assigned a 1 day turn on a 4 day block of reserve with 15 other pilots available on the FIFO list and ended up saving themselves a commute in to work because they called and identified the “mistake” with the crew desk.

Keep your own record of when you should be off probation- Use all the wickets outlined in the contract (work days, bid periods months on property), If the day arrives that you have calculated you are off of probation and have not received a message from your CPO congratulating you for being off probation immediately send an email requesting an audit of the “flight ops tracker”. This tracker is apparently held by the training department and there have been instances in the past where Captains with friends in the training department and certain chief pilots would reach out and back room deal extensions of pilot probation for pilots they have misgivings about where the tracker wouldn’t be updated showing the pilot released from probation while the company flew them for under observation “just to be sure” and ALPA couldn’t help because their position is the company determined when a pilot is off probation. If the company can’t figure out if you’re a keeper or not in 12 bid periods, 12 months and 165 days of work at United then that’s a failure on their part and they shouldn’t get extra time because of their incompetence in that regard. This shouldn’t be much of an issue anymore because some of the CPs known to do it have been fired and the back room dealing captains involved mostly moved on to the widebodies and/or retired.

Probation at United is not generally difficult as long as you stay off the radar.

 

Daaaaaaaaammmmmmmmm

 

Keep an excel tracker for the days worked. I was used as seat support in the sims and those days weren’t reflected. There is also a known issue with carry in flying (ie you fly a trip that starts in one bid period into the next month) and those days are missed by the tracker. I’d reach out to the CPO when you are 2-3 weeks out from finishing probation to make sure you are released from probation ASAP.

And don’t miss trips! I was told by the CPO probationary pilots are generally on a “3 strikes and you’re out” rule. Missed trips, your temporary FAA pilot license expiring, passport or CQDL expiring, etc are all a strike. Idk what else is considered a strike.

Show up to work and do your job and you will be fine.

 

was thinking the same thing. is this a joke? What kind of nonsense do their probies have to put up with???

 

Stay away from social media

 

Avoid Larry the Cable Guy

 

If you’re on reserve and you have a trip that ends on a deadhead, just take the DH. Don’t fake it. You may end up operating it (or another flight in that base). Good way to get out of position.

 

How can you be out of position when you have to get released from scheduling before you fake?