Turbosina

There's no easy way to answer all this and your experience will absolutely depend on:

1) Base
2) Aircraft
3) Time of year (Summer months + December + March are busy, so reserves fly a lot. Jan, Feb, April, May, October are typically quieter so reserves fly less.)

As for seniority, Crew Scheduling is supposed to pay attention to things like "Call First" (which is an option you click) and seniority. Basically, anyone who selects "Call First" gets called, well, first. And if there are 3 guys available, none of whom have selected "Call First," then the most junior guy gets called.

That is the theory. The reality is vastly different because we don't actually have a contract, we have a policy manual which Crew Scheduling usually ignores. I have personally had multiple schedulers tell me "Oh we don't look at seniority" (at least they're honest.) It's been 20 months since I got off reserve and I am never going back to it. I could have upgraded a few months ago but that fourth stripe is absolutely not worth subjecting myself to reserve again.

Anyhow, the "bucket" system is basically like this. Let's say you're starting Day 1 of a 4-day reserve block. You are in the '4-day bucket.' But if you're on Day 4 of a 4-day reserve block, you are in the '1-day bucket.'

What this basically means is that the schedulers will look at all the guys in your 'bucket' when determining who to call. So for example they cannot give a 4-day reserve trip to a guy in the 1-day bucket. What I've never understood is when a 1-day reserve trip comes up, why they often seem to give it to some dude in the 4-day bucket instead of someone in the 1-day bucket. The honest answer is, they just call whoever's name appears first on their screen. Seniority and 'call first' are basically ignored.

Another infuriating thing is OBR, or Out of Base Reserve. When they OBR you, they deadhead you to another base to sit reserve. So you might have 10 available reserve guys in your base, but because another base is theoretically low on reserves, they'll send you to that base to sit and rot. Sometimes for 5 days with not a single flight (ask me how I know). Let me tell you, sitting 5 days' reserve in a dingy hotel room in ORD on a rainy Thanksgiving weekend with precisely zero flying during those 5 days, is not how you want to be spending your airline career. At least OBR is slightly better than commuting to reserve, because on OBR, the company pays for your hotel. When you commute to reserve, your hotel or crash pad is on your dime. Commuting to reserve is like repeatedly stabbing yourself in the head with a rusty spork while listening to Donald Trump bloviate about, well, anything.

What's truly maddening about OBR, and I have personally witnessed this multiple times, is that CS just hates to have reserves go 'unutilized.' They hate the idea of paying someone to sit at home. So here's what happens: They will call you at 0400 on Day 1 of your reserve block and deadhead you to another base halfway across the country — say, ORD. You'll sit there for 4 or 5 days. Maybe you'll fly, maybe you won't. Meanwhile, they do the same thing to some poor guy from ORD — they'll deadhead him to your base and have him sit there for 4 or 5 days. At the end of this time, you'll both be deadheaded back to your home bases. Neither of you will have flown a single leg, and all this really accomplished was wasting money for the company. But — and this is the key — Crew Scheduling will be able to report higher reserve utilization numbers.

If you think I'm kidding, I'm not...ask any SKW pilot who's spent any time on reserve and they probably have a story just like that. This happened three times to me in my 5 months on reserve. All of my classmates from new-hire training were scattered around the country, and three separate times I had a classmate get OBR'd to my base while I got OBR'd to his base, with our days exactly overlapping. I'm sure it made the 'Reserve Utilization Report" look better that month, and probably earned some guy in SGU named Milton with a red stapler a slightly larger bonus.

So, to sum up, on reserve:
1) You might fly a lot
2) You might not fly at all
3) Seniority doesn't matter a bit
4) The only thing reserve is good for, is for controlling your days off. You bid for reserve lines, and if you get the line you want, they can't put flying on your days off. With PBS line bidding, you can bid all you want for certain off days, but aren't ever assured of getting them until you're extremely senior in base.
5) Yes, guys will talk about how bidding reserve when you live in base can be awesome. I dunno, perhaps it can. In the 3 months I bid reserve in base, I was called every single day except one. Let me say that again: every single day (of my reserve blocks) except one, in 3 months. And those were the 'slow' months, too. So....your results may vary.

Hope that helps...

Turbosina

True, although as a reserve guy you have to call *******w Scheduling, you can't just pick up online via SkedPlus.

RemoveB4Flight

True. I should have included that. You can still view them online you just have to call to have it added to your schedule.
Point being there are opportunities to pick up flying on your days off. The number of trips in open time vary by base and equipment but they are always available.

Bravix

I'm currently having a tough time choosing between my regional options. I'd like a base not on the coast, preferably in the Midwest. ORD is top of my list, mostly due to proximity to family (and a big hub, so easy to get to family in distant states).

I see a lot of people going to Skywest, but I think I'm missing something, because I don't see the huge draw. Could you guys help me out? Correct me if I'm wrong on these, and add anything I'm missing.

Pro:
ORD base that's (somewhat?) junior?
Not the best, nowhere near the worse, upgrade times
No union fees(?)
Potentially longer legs from ORD base(?)

Cons:
Pay. Unless you guys are getting credited considerably more than minimum, I make more Flight Instructing. Paying considerably less than a number of other airlines.
I didn't write down everything I've read, but the general feeling I remember was that everything was pretty average (work rules and so forth).

RemoveB4Flight

Ord is very junior compared to other bases here. Some months it's about even with msp. The only one that is definitely more junior is DTW.
Upgrade times are at 22 months and still dropping. That's pretty short.
No union fees because no union.
Ord has a lot of 700 trips that are longer legs.
We do credit considerably more than minimum. As a line holder you can expect roughly 90 hours/month. I'm shocked if you're making that much flight instructing. As an FO I will have grossed 52,000. I never pick up open time and many times have even traded away trips so I'm certain there are a lot of FOs that make more than I do. With that I usually get about 13 days off each month.
I would say work rules at Skywest in general are above average. We have several pay protections that other regionals don't have.
Things aren't perfect here. They won't be perfect anywhere you choose to go but I am happy at Skywest and I think most Skywest pilots would agree that if you get stuck at a regional longer than you planned/hoped, Skywest isn't a bad one to be stuck at.

Duesenflieger

I made $42k this year before taxes and I'm a newhire of January 2016 (five months of reserve, one month by choice). I have been based at ORD since IOE. That was before they paid reserve guarantee for new-hires in training. We are also due for a pay raise starting January. So you'll likely make more than I did if you were to get ORD.

As far as the base, I like it. Lots of variety here and I've never had a problem with CS.

Squallrider

Our upgrade time is under two years and unless you have 121 time from somewhere else you won't have the 1000 hours required to upgrade until around our upgrade time anyway (3 months training, average 80block you're already at almost a year and a half and that's holding a good line out the gate).

Actually hourly wise we're near the top, factor in 100% deadhead pay, 100% cancellation pay, 2 bonuses first year, plus 4 more second year (total 6) and the year after that the 4 bonuses also pay financial rewards, you will see we are near the top of pay if not the top.

People have been coming to Skywest when it had 7 year upgrades and everyone else had lower. It's a very good, very stable company with many bases.

Regardless of where you go, everyday you're flight instructing for 40k a year (I made more than that first year) you're slowing career progression.

Flymeaway

Unrelated question...I notice that days 1 and 4 are significantly shorter than 2 and 3. Is this a normal trip? Is day 1 a late start and day 4 an early on deck to allow the pilots to commute to/from another city on those days?

I assume that if you have to commute the day before/after a trip, the hotel is on you?

Flymeaway

Does this mean that the schedule you get at the beginning of the month will change during the month against your wishes? How much notice do you usually get when that happens?

trip

Normal for a commute trip.
Yes.
That's correct.