Reserve Rules

[Mookie]

Hey ya'll,

I'm looking for any info regarding Reserve Rules at your respective companies. Specifically reserve call-outs, ready reserve policy, reserve seniority (first call or bucket system), guarantee, etc.... I'd appreciate any info from the Comair, Eagle, ASA, ACA, mesa, and Whiskey dudes.

Looks like we're going to try and revise our reserve policy at SkyWest...hopefully for the better!!!

Mookie

 

[Beechnut]

Air Wis has 2 reserve situations and a third, Long Call Duty.

Standard reserve is a two hour call out to check in for a flight. The company issues pagers to all reserve pilots and F/As. The company cannot mark against you if you're stuck in traffic or there is a bad snow storm or anything that is out of the control of the pilot... Sitting in the middle of a lake three hours from Chicago doesn't count. Once on the trip, you have to call Crew Sked once the trip is over to be released from duty. Reserve lines are built to 12 days off and 75 hours pay. Actual time on duty is about 15 hours and the hours can rotate throughout the clock. Most reserve times start between 6 and 9 a.m. You take what they give you, but negotiation is possible. (I only had one reserve day that had me on reserve on the back side of the clock. That's with about 9 months total reserve on two different airplanes.)

Ready Reserve: Usually two lines of RR per bid period per base... I don't know (I don't think that is) Atlanta has any RR lines. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. I believe this can change, not sure. You get a private room at the airport that has a comfy chair, cable TV, phone and a line for internet connection. If this cannot be done, the company gets you a hotel room to spend the day. The lines are built for 14 days off, 75 hours pay and Per Diem for time spent at the airport on Ready Reserve.

Long Call Duty is actually built into Build Up Lines and isn't technically a reserve assignment. LC works like this: You have a line that has 4 days off at the beginning of the month followed by say 4 days of LC and then 4 days off. The first day of Long Call (LC) is on Monday. The company has to notify you of a trip by 6 p.m. Saturday if they need you to work. (It is also the pilot's responsibility to contact Crew Sked if the pilot hasn't heard from them.) If by Saturday 6 p.m. the Company doesn't have a trip for you on Monday, you're released until Tuesday. So Sunday night you call Crew Sked and see if they need you Tuesday. This works out GREAT for commuters. Again, it's a line, built to at least 75 hours and 12 days off. Not being used for a LC day does not go towards your days off.

S.

 

[J41CA]

ACA Reserve

ACA's reserve lines are all built with a 75 hour monthly guarantee with 11 days off. Reserve day pairings are built during the month to have 5 days reserve followed by 3 days off with the exception of one off period of only 2 days. All days off are golden.

All reserve pilots available for duty for a particular day are placed into reserve buckets based on the number consective reserve days a particular pilot has scheduled. For example, a pilot who begins a five day reserve period would be placed in the five day bucket.

Call out period is 2 hours.

Reserve duty periods are 14 hours extendable to 15 hours for WX or MX.

Continous duty / Stand-ups assignment have 16 hour duty periods provided the eight hours of rest requirement has been met before the standup assignment. If the rest requirement hasn't been met, then the standup trip is converted to a reduced rest overnight. This is only legal if the flight to the outstation is scheduled to arrive before 14 hours from the beginning of the reserve assigment period.

Ready Reserve is used quite extensively by scheduling. Typically, ready reserve crews are assigned eight hour airport standby beginning at 5AM with another RR crew showing up around 11AM for the afternoon. All flight assignments actually flown during a ready reserve period must be completed within 14 hours of the original duty on period.

A Reserve pay bump goes into effect when daily flight hours exceed 3+45. The pay bump increases the monthly guarantee up to a maximum of 80 hours. For example, if reserve flight assignments had an additional 5+00 flight time, then the monthly guarantee would be increased to 80 hours. This may not seem like a lot of extra pay. But, coupled with the fact that all Ready Reserve assignments subtract 3+45 from the monthly guarantee and are applied above guarantee with the net effect of reserve pay around 85-90 hours per month for sitting at the airport 2-3 days.