crewdawg

Never underestimate the fear of the unknown. There are LOTS of pilots who won't bid reserve because they don't know the rules, or just want to fly their schedule and go home, even if that means working a lot more. I know guys who live well within short call range who still refuse to switch to lines. I was walking the dogs a few months ago, sporting a nice reserve beard, while I walked past my neighbor who was shuffling in from a redeye (I don't even live in Georgia, but we randomly have 3 DAL pilots in the hood). He asked me if I ever worked and I'm like I try not to, you should try reserve some time. But he won't because he doesn't understand the rules and frankly doesn't seem to want to learn. If someone like him is unwilling to make the switch, I can only imagine we have lots of others that are the same, I've flown with lots of pilot unwilling to make the switch. Nothing wrong with that, that's their choice and there is some simplicity to bidding a line. I bid lines a few months of the year for this reason. I just can't imagine flying a line every month of the year...it's tiring lol.

Gone Flying

correct, however a minimum of 15% of reserves have to be able to have each day off.

crewdawg

It's just that we never know who those 15% will be lol.

BlueSkies

Ok, I'm interested.

I have not tried RES since the new PWA came out. I'm thinking about bidding RES in Jan. Here are my reasons for normally not bidding RES:
-I sat RES for a while as a junior FO and always seemed to fly close to ALV and so worked just as much as a line holder (I usually bid for 65-70 hrs)
-Not knowing when & what I'll fly/worried about missing an assignment (that's my own thing, just always have that low level stress I don't have as a line holder)
-Can't swap trips and seemed very difficult to move X-days as a RES
-Need to know what days I'm working ahead of time for planning

That being said, I am getting tired of working every weekend and because of how short staffing is I may be able to nudge a trip a day or two over but I can't really move stuff like I used to (did it to myself, I'm a junior line holder). Bad day/worse day doesn't seem to work much because of very poor staffing on weekends combined with covering RES trips 2 days out (not complaining btw, just what I've noticed).

So how many days/block hours do you usually fly a month? How much ninja schedule work do you do? Do you fly a lot of GSs to control how they work you? Thanks.

nene

Without giving a specific base/category, the answers to these questions will be all over the map!

Viper25

So all this seniority discussion, can 42% in category command every day/holiday off in December?

tennisguru

50% of line holders are protected from coverage awards. So if you are #42 of 100 total pilots in category, you could still see a coverage award depending on how many reserve lines there are and how many people senior to you bid reserve. Say there are 20 total reserve lines and 10 people senior to you bid reserve. So of line holders you would be #32 of 80 and thus safe from coverage awards. If there are 20 reserve lines that are all junior to you, then you become #42/80 and are not protected from coverage.

captkdobbs

This is a great explanation. Your % in category is only part of the equation. (42% in the above example)

If 50% of RES are senior to you and 50% are junior, your % of "Line Holders" is your % in category. (Again - #32 of 80 Lineholders, 40%)

Every RES senior to you improves your %-of-Line-Holders position while every RES junior to you worsens your %-of-Line-Holders and thus increases your chance of coverage.

BlueSkies

Yeah, I get that, but I'm more interested in what the best ways are to maximize RES QOL generally speaking.

Gunfighter

Be senior on a WB, especially one with FRMS trips.