UALinIAH

To echo what others have said, unless you plan to move within short call of the domicile, try to avoid the 756 as a new hire.

Think about it this way. If junior 756 in EWR/SFO was a good gig, why are current UAL pilots not bidding it and therefore making it available to new hires?

dvhighdrive88

73. Much better. No doubt. Same pay. Better life.

Reason they're always looking for FOs on the 75 especially out of EWR.

And yes before somebody chimes in about looking for EWR 73 people always, in comparison your QOL on the 73 will improve much faster. Besides with how our supposed Europeans "friends" are treating us like dog crap at the airport these days who the hell wants to go over there anyway?

Big huge avoid Europe flying these days.

Half wing

Getting the 756 as a new hire is often not a choice. I was the 8 ball in '13 and got the 756 in EWR. I know of several classes where the 756 went most junior in class. This is because the longer reserve times. I commuted from Denver and I was always able to aggressive pick up trips. It used to be a lot easier to do that back then. There is a chance you could be on reserve for your 2 year seat lock on the 756 these days. Some guys on the 756 were getting lines after about a year.

Half wing

It should be pretty easy to get sfo or Ewr on the 756. Probably be able to get one or the other on the first vacancy bid.

Pro2nd

I have been on reserve in EWR on the 756 since I was hired 2 years ago. I love the airplane and the flying! I love the easy trans con domestic 2 days and the great European 3-4 day trips. Even the junior ones are great overnights. I wouldn't bid to the 73 or the 320 for anything. My take on 756 reserve is its amazing in the slow months (Oct-April) and can be Hell in the busy months. Living in base is a huge plus, I can sit short call at home. I pick up lots of short calls to avoid trips and as such have flown less than 600 hours in 2 years. That's including IOE and consolidation. Now I average going to work 4-5 days a month! (not including sitting reserve at home). I just went to Denver for landings because I haven't touched an airplane in over 6 weeks. Bottom line I would highly recommend reserve on 756, in EWR at least, as long as you live local enough to sit short call at home. QOL has been fantastic for me 8-9 months a year, so good it makes up for the other 3-4.

UALinIAH

I completely agree. Our reserve system is outstanding for locals. It sucks ass for commuters. Hence my caveat about not bidding unless the OP was willing to move within SC distance. (And the company standard is they will pay for you to move within 200 miles which you can't do SC now living 200 miles away). I do wish we would go back to the old (sUAL) 4 hr callout vs what we have now which would open up a lot room for people to live in range of places like SFO and EWR.

I know people who commute complain about reserve and how we need to fix it next contract. I have never commuted to reserve in my 22 yrs so I have no idea about it and please don't turn this into a RSV bashing thread. Just pointing out that it's two completely different jobs when comparing living within reasonable driving distance to your domicile vs commuting.

757Driver

Wouldn't count on that anytime soon. We'll just keep on signing extensions that only change the hourly rates. Seems to keep the shiny coin people happy and screws everybody else.

Dedi

Thanks for the great replies, guys!

Winston

(Past performance is no guarantee of future returns, but...)

18 month guy here on the 737 in SFO:

- 2 months on reserve.
- 8 months until weekends off.
- for the past 6 months I've been just over 50% and it's been Fri/Sat/Sun off with about 50% Hawaii flying.

If I went to the 756 I'd currently be around 95%. Guys say the 757 is a great plane to fly, but since I get paid the same to fly the 800/900, it's a no-brainer:

Way better seniority, way better variety, comparable (probably better) pay.

The plane? Eh... it has issues. We joke about it over Mai Tais at Duke's.

C11DCA

In reality the call out was only shortened by 30 minutes. Old contract was unwritten 4 hours to push. Now it's 2:30 to show. Certainly 30 minutes in certain hubs can help certain folks though.

The excessive short calls built at crew desk discretion is the biggest complaint I hear about the reserve system. Basically there is no long call part of the long call/short call system. It's like the old days when all it was, was short call That needs to get fixed.