Questions for CAL pilots..
 

How many reserve lines I IAH on th 73?.. How many of those are short call? How many short call conversions per month is normal?

How many reserves EWR? How may of those are SC?

There is no bid packet so my counting of reserve lines isn't 100% accurate, but it looks like in IAH the most junior line holder was #580 with a total of 637 in base. Some of the guys below #580 got mixed lines and the most junior guy got a line.

In EWR it looks like #265 was the most junior line holder with 302 people bidding for the month.

No one has to bid long call. So to look at how many got it wouldn't give a clear example of how many could get it. They have to award 25% of the reserve lines to long call if that many people bid it. But with everything in our contract "the company and the Association will meet and agree to any change to the 25% limit".

I'm not sure what exactly you mean by conversions. But we don't have conversion lines. If you are below the G-line (most junior line holder) you can bid for a line, reserve, or a mixed line.

I hope that helps a little.

I'll apply a little chainsaw math to this. The "G Line" (Junior guaranteed lineholder) runs to about 85% in my BES, so I'll assume it does roughly the same for others. Below the "G Line" some lines are awarded, but not in seniority order and you definitely can't count on them, even if you're the first one below the line. Basing it on those assumptions and generalities, roughly the bottom 100 pilots in the 650 pilot IAH 737 FO BES are on reserve.

A minimum of the top 25% must be offered long call (A) reserve. That means even if half of the top 25% of reserves want short call (Four hours more pay), none of those unused long call slots are guaranteed to trickle down to the bottom 75% contractually (They're use 'em or lose 'em).

Don't know, but contractually they can assign you a short call period to begin nine hours after contact.

Using 350 pilots in the BES, roughly 50.

The vast majority, I suspect.

David posted between my response and he's in the BES giving you actual numbers. He's looking at actual monthly bidders, while I was just looking at staffing. I don't think, however, 25% of reserve lines are A lines, just they must be offered to the top 25% of reserve bidders.

Ok, this helps. How about agressively picking up trips? How far out is open flying assigned to reserves? Trying to figure out how to do this without a crashpad, I have 9 flights a day from MSY, and a Bonanza that can make it to IAH in 2:10 for a last resort.

I have heard CALs PBS runs an optimizer program which tries to build lines at the cheapest cost to the company....if that is true, and some of us UAL guys are coming in at say, $105 an hour (and quite a few even higher hourly) how do you think the optimizer will play that out? I know it is a guess, but I appreciate any input. Thanks to the CAL folks for helping out with information.

I'm in the top 20% of line holders and got screwed by PBS for next month! A 5-day trip (doing SFO flying) worth 18 hours! :eek:

PBS sucks for lineholders, but it so much better than reserve at CAL.

Sorry, a few more questions for CAL folks (in addition to the question about the optimizer program)....

I read on the CO reserve reality thread that if you are a short call reserve and you aggressively pick up a trip, that crew scheduling can also put a short call window in front of the trip starting? If so, is this added to your duty time (and how could it not be, but then again). Are fatigue calls taken from sick time, or do they reduce your guarantee?

Can they roll more days than 4 days? At UAL, on international reserve, we had 6 'holy days,' and the remaining 6 could get moved, but that very rarely happened, at least not to me. At CAL, it sounds like it happens pretty routinely. I'm just wanting to know if there is a way for crew scheduling to roll more than 4.

In terms of legalities, are they not required to give you 24 hours off in base? Or are they able to give you the 24 hours rest at a layover point?

Thanks for anyone taking the time to answer.

A reserve (long call) aggressive pick up is from 9am-11am. Then trips are assigned to A reserves from 11am-12. B reserve (short call) aggressive pick up is 12-1300. Then trips are assigned to B reserves 13:00-15:00. At 15:00 your call out time is given to you for the next day. All times are in local to your domicile. To pick up a trip it must match your reserve days, good for 3 days must pick up a 3 day trip. Good for more than 4 days you can pick up a 4 day is the exception.

You should be ok in iah without a crash pad on the 737. Seems to be a lot of open time to pick up. Hotels are fairly cheap if you get stuck for a few nights.

The optimizer is to run the system with zero open time and to limit the amount of staffing required. Line values are high for almost everyone on the 737.

Generally they will assign you a call out if you aggressively pick up a trip. I have had them not do this, but it's rare. Your call out starts your duty day though so it does help with timing out for the day. The only difference is if they assign you an international trip your duty day starts when you report for the trip and not on your call out. This sucks as I recently learned with my 19 hour duty day.

They can roll your days just not your immovable days off. 24 hours off at an international station counts, so they can keep you flying. They must give you 1 night at your domicile though if they want to fly you more than 6 straight days.

The fatigue rules are changing or have already. They will take the hours out of your sick bank.