Welcome to Flightinfo.com

  • Register now and join the discussion
  • Friendliest aviation Ccmmunity on the web
  • Modern site for PC's, Phones, Tablets - no 3rd party apps required
  • Ask questions, help others, promote aviation
  • Share the passion for aviation
  • Invite everyone to Flightinfo.com and let's have fun

Bidding reserve on purpose

Welcome to Flightinfo.com

  • Register now and join the discussion
  • Modern secure site, no 3rd party apps required
  • Invite your friends
  • Share the passion of aviation
  • Friendliest aviation community on the web

satpak77

Marriott Platinum Member
Joined
Dec 2, 2003
Posts
3,015
Just curious

How many airline guys bid reserve on purpose, do to an outside business or family matters? Does this affect how fast you make Captain?

Also, say a guy past 1-year probation looses his medical, and he wants to work for the corporate side of the house in some capacity, or maybe as a dispatcher, etc, etc. Is this possible? Or do most airlines hire you as "pilot only"?
 
satpak77 said:
Just curious


Does this affect how fast you make Captain?

QUOTE]

Satpak77,

Seniority is merely seniority. For the most part, how you choose to exercise it will not change it. Progression up the seniority list will not be affected by being on reserve. In fact, the only thing one can do ( as far as our company was concerned ) to lose seniority was to go on LOA( by choice ) beyond a certain amount, after which one lost some amount of seniority. Other companies may have other arrangements.

I've certainly heard of guys losing their medical and going to work in the training dept or dispatch. This will also vary from company to company. Seems to me to just be a smart thing to do to use people like this in operational departments; they've been there...done that and can bring experience/perspective to a training/dispatch environment that perhaps a non-pilot or a non-seniority list pilot couldn't.

Hope this is what you wanted to know.
 
I got a dispatcher rating in 1995 for the heck of it. Figured if I ever got laid off or lost my medical I could fall back on it.

After 09/11 dispatchers were furloughed too.

2 furloughs after 09/11 I found myself working at Comair and one day saw an internal job posting for dispatcher. Figured i'd had enough of RJs and overnights so I went and saw the chief pilot, submitted the paperwork for an internal application.

Was invited down there to meet with someone in charge.

"What kind of dispatch experience do you have?", he asked.

"Well, none i'm afraid. I have the certificate, but i've been a part 121 pilot for the last 10 years or so." I replied.

"I'm really looking for someone with dispatch experience."

"ok - (confused) - .... but if that is the case, why did you advertise the position internally? Who at Comair has dispatch experience and is not currently a dispatcher???"

(needless to say I did not get the job)
 
FurloughedAgain said:
"ok - (confused) - .... but if that is the case, why did you advertise the position internally? Who at Comair has dispatch experience and is not currently a dispatcher???"

It's probably Corporate Policy that jobs have to be posted internally before they can look outside the company. That's the way it works at my place of employment.
 
Sometimes you bid reserve to get specific days off that you can't hold as a lineholder. I've done that with Christmas before.

TWA had such a good reserve system for awhile that it went senior. If you were senior on reserve, you could pass all month.

However, any AMR pilot who intentionally bids domestic reserve is mentally unstable and should be removed from flight status, IMO... ;) TC
 
reserve

Reserve is different at different companies. At FedEx, reserve can be a good thing if you live in Memphis (or another domicile), and your seat is sufficiently manned. If they are short in your seat, you will work alot and thus reserve is not such a good deal. Otherwise guys can work only a couple days per month.

In our case, you are on a 1-hour response leash. If they call, you cannot pass, you must go. We have a 12 hour reserve window.

Goose17
 
AA717driver said:
However, any AMR pilot who intentionally bids domestic reserve is mentally unstable and should be removed from flight status, IMO... ;) TC

True, that!

When the airline is staffed properly, it can be good to bid reserve when you're senior in seat. You can either sit at home the whole month or bid easy trips every so often and give yourself a better month than you could have gotten as a lineholder.

That's no longer the case with most airlines. Believe it or not, most airlines are short-staffed even though they have pilots on furlough. :rolleyes: Typically, the reserve pilots are some of the busiest pilots in the system, and their schedules are a mess. Instead of knowing what you'll be doing for the whole month, you're waiting for the phone to ring at 0400 every morning for a turn, or a deadhead to another hub, or a ferry flight out to the maintenance base. It's pretty poor QOL.

A couple years ago, we had a very senior captain (single digit seniority number) who continued to bid reserve even though it was no longer the cushy gig it used to be. One day, they ran out of First Officers as well as Captains, so they called him out to fly a trip in the right seat! Bet that's the last time he'll do that! :eek:
 
I guess everyone pays their dues one way or another. What is the QOL when you start at a major like FedEx. Do you not notice the work for a while because you enjoy the new job?
 
EagleRJ said:
............One day, they ran out of First Officers as well as Captains, so they called him out to fly a trip in the right seat! Bet that's the last time he'll do that! ...........

OHMYGOSH!!!!!!! A captain was FORCED to fly as an FO for a trip!!! OH the humanity!!!.

Was he really so petty and insecure that flying a trip as an FO was a huge deal to him? That's a little sad.
 
Captains are flown as FOs every day. But this guy hadn't been in the right seat for more than 20 years, so that's what made it unusual.

I'm sure doing the W&B and working the performance numbers took just a little longer than normal.
 

Latest resources

Back
Top