What does the reserve schedule look like for days on/off at NJA?
18 days per month. 4 hard days (one stretch, or two pairs of days) can be bid off, the rest will vary. If you work a tour of up to 6 days, you'll have at least 3 days off afterwards. If you work 7 days, you'll have 4 off. (Those days off may encompass your hard days.)
You'll know by 6pm if you're starting work the next day, and what time. It cannot change to any earlier time -- you're not on "long-call" or "short-call" or anything resembling airline reserve. The name is really a misnomer. The big difference is that your days off will vary, and you'll work a few more days than the normal 7/7 schedule. Otherwise, the rules are the same.
What does a typical days worth of flying look like?
It varies
wildly. Today was just two legs, about 9 hours on duty. That's pretty rare, but that's how it played out today.
Yesterday, I reported mid-morning in southern California, flew to San Francisco, sat for about 6 hours (did some Jepp updates, ate lunch, and enjoyed the massage chairs), and flew back. Great day! About 11.5 hours on duty, followed by about the same amount of rest.
The day prior, I did four legs, crossed the country, and ended it with an hour straightening the plane up from a family from hell, and restocking the snacks, sodas, etc. (That's the exception, fortunately.) Then it took several hours to finally get to a hotel, making it about a 15-hour day. Fortunately our people worked hard to find something in an oversold market, and it was a nice hotel. But still, a pretty grueling day.
As I said, it varies.
The regional I'm at now 6- 8 hours flight with 8-9 hours duty free in between. 83 to 95 hours a month. Flew 965 hours last year. It's exhausting.
Sounds exactly like my last job.
I don't have control over the quality of service, which is bothersome.
That's one of the things I really like about this job -- I really
do have a large impact on the service, and it often gets noticed by the passengers. For example, just the other day, our passenger catering order was to include a specific newspaper they wanted. It didn't make it. Rather than say "sorry" and just shrug our shoulders, we have the tools and the approval to do whatever we need to do to make it right. In my case, I borrowed a car from the FBO, went down the street to get the missing item, and got reimbursed by the company. No questions asked.
Did the passenger notice the extra effort? Not specifically. They only noticed that everything went
perfectly with the flight, and were happy with the product and with our company. Every small detail was taken care of. Which is, of course, the whole point of it all. In a way, it's me directly affecting my job security, because it's little things like that that keep people renewing with us. More work than 121? You bet. But not without its rewards, both personal and financial. It's a good gig.
