at6d

Yes they do. During months where reserve use may be lower, I know FOs that bid reserve and then pick up on days off (the point being not to get used on reserve). It’s a gamble.

Some pick reserve for specific days off.

tm602

Don’t get too excited over those blank lines. PHX has nearly 45% of them just getting loaded up with 100% reserve, usually AM reserve. Maybe HOU is better, but if you’re going to get reserve, get the reserve on the side of the clock you want.

Crockrocket95

Yeah, the bottom 50 percent of FO blanks are mostly reserve with 1 trip built in at least in the MCO base...

arbalist1

I barely missed the cutoff for a hard line, so I bid my top choices of reserve lines before blanks. I knew the blanks would all be garbage reserve before they came out.

Maxxter

Yeah, blank lines used to have like 3-4 with reserve, sometimes no reserve. Now days half of the blank lines are reserve. Crazy times.

Proximity

It depends on pairings vs staffing. When the MAX was grounded just about all blank lines were reserve. There is report that you can pull from SWAPA that predicts the pairing mix for blank lines, so you can make an informed bid. Look for "Current Blank Line Projection".

bobble

Well, if it ends up being all reserve it’ll be no different from what I’m currently getting! Thanks guys.

e6bpilot

Blanks have been a mixed bag. Last year they were packed with flying. They had even more block and tfp than the hard lines. I bid a blank a few times in order to get some artificial seniority for vacation and was astounded at what the company was putting in them. There are normally a handful of “easy going” blanks with big blocks of days off and low blocking trips. Last year, even when schedule adjustments were being done, they were absolutely terrible. They also had no reserve in them at all.
I talked to the crew planning director both in a q and a session and in person afterword this month. He said they are trying to tinker with the reserves and blanks to get the right number of lines, but the goal is to bring both of them down to the minimum that will support a stable schedule execution. This is January and February. It’s not a surprise that they have reserve blocks in them. Wait until March and beyond and I suspect bidding a blank line vs reserve will be more of a good deal.
Weekday reserve (there are usually only a couple lines of this) has always gone senior to blanks and some hard lines. They are less likely to be used and can be a good deal.

PRS Guitars

You are correct about the 18 days on. Our (AA) guarantee is 73 long call, 76 short call, and they can't fly you over 85. You can however fly OG/PR above 85. You can fly PR/OG on one day off into multiple days on, which makes you less usable for a regular reserve trip. PR does go pretty Jr actually. I sat LCR as a Jr NB CA last year (not PHX though) flew over 80 only twice, mostly flew in the 40 to 60 range (talking actual flying, credit can be much higher and OG/PR adds to the 73 guarantee). I'm sure some will chime in that they flew 80 every month, it does vary by equipment and base, and there is some strategy to how you build your schedule etc. Had probably 6 to 9 DHD only last days which allowed me to commute home a day early as well.

EDIT: Rereading the posts on here, I realize that the person I was replying to was saying it's bad to be capped at 85 and bad to credit 73/76. The goal on reserve at AA is to fly as few reserve trips as possible and then enjoy your time at home...or pick up PR, still fly low but credit higher. its possible to fly 60 to 70 hours and credit 120 to 140. Flying 85 hours of reserve trips is definitely a bad month (flying too much).

lavMan

Go to AA. Seniority alone will benefit ya more than anything. Bs contract or not. Add up those years to left seat? SWA flat out doesn’t have the movement.