Originally Posted by Happyflyer

What a dumb comment. A hundered different investors could have bought XJT in BK renegotiated the contract and submitted a bid to operate E-jets for United applying downward pressure on SW CPA profit margins.

You'll never be able to calculate the profit margin loss of competing with XJT for flying vs. owning them and absorbing their losses.

Originally Posted by Is offline

We all know how cheap xjt could do the flying by the financial reports. If Skywest hadn't purchased them they wouldn't even be around. How long again since there has been a profit made?

Originally Posted by Happyflyer

That's 1 option, or the owners file BK and United buys them and SKW never gets another CPA for any United or Continental flying, what would be that "cost" for not finding future work?

Originally Posted by 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...

Originally Posted by MajHam

How about this: Are there rules prohibiting pilots from talking to or getting to know the staff at crew scheduling?

Originally Posted by MajHam

Yes, it helps, thank you.
Just taking a few deep breaths... "why did I make this career move?"
How about this: Are there rules prohibiting pilots from talking to or getting to know the staff at crew scheduling?

Originally Posted by MajHam

How about this: Are there rules prohibiting pilots from talking to or getting to know the staff at crew scheduling?

Originally Posted by N1234

Not sure what your background is but you better forget about any normal dynamics that prevail anywhere else.

There is no "I rub your back you rub my back" dynamic at all - the basis of any other business that I know of. You cannot sweet talk CS into doing anything.

I finally got my head around it once I thought of it as a purely transactional arrangement. You only get something out of them in return for something they need right then and there. There is absolutely no concept of goodwill or paying it forward.

You are severely limited while on reserve as the only thing you can offer them is to work on your off days. Once a line holder you have more options but remember - it is purely transactional.

Originally Posted by MajHam

Ok, Fun. Sounds like a past relationship.

Thanks for the help everyone, really. It's good to know what I'm stepping into.

Sounds like reserve is possibly one of the circles of suffering Dante was writing about + should be avoided at almost any cost.
I was signed up for the E175, but now I'm thinking CRJ would be worth commuting east?