How to be Smart

[swreservepilot]

Okay, now some good news. Or at least some strategies for what you can do to avoid working for free. This can be complicated. Even those of us who have sat reserve for years sometimes get burned. However, there are resources to help you. Use the Forum to ask questions when you're confused. There are a lot of us willing to help out.

First technique? Trade or give away your reserve. This is easiest to do in low-flying months, on weekdays, and in three day blocks or less. Most times this doesn't work, but you never know. Use the TTGA board to post your reserve block, along with your phone number and what you're looking for (Trade any trip, trade 4 AM trip, etc).

Second technique: If you find yourself flying on the first day of a reserve block, you can give away your remaining days of reserve once released from that trip so you get the full credit for the flying you accomplished. For example, if you have a 4-day block, and work a 23.6TFP three day, the last day of reserve you will be getting paid .6TFP to be on call. Great, huh? People WILL almost always pick up a one-day block of reserve, especially if there's nothing in open time. And, if you're trying to work hard, every day you give away lowers your RPT, making you more likely to get called out. Remember how the DRO works--it's listed in RPT order. Once you're below that dashed line (meaning you're above guarantee, I said it was convoluted) it's all done with the lowest RPT at the top. The lower your RPT, the more you get called.

Back to our scenario, where you had a 4-day block and flew the first three days. If you give away the last day, your pay will be 23.6 if you do this--unless you then pick up open time yourself, with the day you've just freed yourself up on. Don't get me wrong--if there's plenty of trips in open time, and you will get assigned a trip, then you'll make 23.6 plus the credit for the next trip--at a minimum 6.5. That's a total of 30.1, but remember--this is predicated upon you being over guarantee for the MONTH. And, if you are over guarantee, you will be near the bottom of the list for getting assigned that trip.

If you are sitting a reserve block that pays-by-the-block and you are not assigned a trip the first day, you may want to consider giving away the remaining days so that your first day is a single day block that pays 6 TFP. Then you can pick up a different reserve block starting the next day (giving you a separate pay by-the-block guarantee), take the extra time off, bid for Premium fly, or pick up from giveaway. This means you'll need to phone a friend who is willing to do this. Why not start a base/seat email list for the reserve folk who are willing to do this, and add any lineholders who are looking for extra $$ also? Cooperate and get paid properly.

!Warning! This has led to discipline in some bases, meaning a letter of counseling in your file. Management sometimes thinks it's a violation of the Flight Ops Employee Handbook, which you've probably never seen. It breaks the 'artificially inflating your pay' guideline. Those who were disciplined have grieved that, and it's still working its way through the system. It might be smart to find others willing to do this with you off-line (not on a public forum) if you're going to do this. It IS a good technique, though, and not forbidden by contract.

Advanced technique: Give away that leftover reserve day to a friend who's not working, but willing to be available. Tell them that if they get any assignments, you will fly the first one for them. There are several advantages to this. The most common scenario is that they will get a trip, since they will be one of the first ones called, having such a low RPT (however many days they just picked up from you). When they get a trip, you can call scheduling and "extra fly" their trip (wait until just before report time to do this so that scheduling doesn't re-assign you). Voila, you just earned yourself whatever the trip pays. And, in a win for your friend, they got paid 6.0 to sit home on reserve for the day. Though, of course, once you extra fly the first trip they were assigned, there is always potential for them to be assigned another trip, and that one they'll be stuck with unless they can give it away to someone else. Also common--you give away the reserve day(s), and they sit at home for free. You can have a day off, or you can pick up other trips (make sure your friend knows that after a certain time, you'll be looking for other stuff yourself). Again, the advantages of this--you are reducing your RPT, or reserve liability. You're not sitting on call for almost nothing. Plus, any flying you can do NOT on reserve/red days you are guaranteed to get equal pay for. Also, your buddy is probably happy to make an extra 6TFP for being on call. This isn’t against the contract, and lineholders do it on a regular basis.

But wait, what if I just want to sit at home?

We get that too. It is not always to your advantage to give away reserve days. If your crystal ball says that it's a low-flying month, you bid reserve to fly as little as possible and work on honey-dos, we appreciate that. This works out sometimes. If you have a month where you're on call for 15 days, and you only work 10 of them, it can feel like you're getting paid to do chores around the house. Some months this is more likely than others. If you got called in for ten days worth, a 4-day and two 3-days, that might pay 26+ (2x19.5), adding up to 65. If you gave away reserve days and didn't pick anything up, your guarantee gets reduced. So, in this case, count yourself lucky, keep all your days, and enjoy staying at home. But be careful...your RPT will be low, your odds of getting called out keep going up. It does happen occasionally, but reserve here is not like reserve at other majors--utilization rates for each duty period are historically between 60-90%, with the only dip coming in February every year.

OK, so how else can I avoid sitting for free?

Watch the open time and the other reserves. Perhaps the PM DRO is long, but there are a lot of AM trips--more than there are AM reserves. If you are legal, just starting out a reserve block, you can try to call and volunteer to change your RAP so that you can be assigned a trip (8.E.4). The only key point here is legality--you need to ensure you're legal for that trip. Scheduling hates to pay premium, so sometimes they will do this.

Now, once you're senior, if you ever think you want to bid a reserve line, DON'T bid a reserve line! Picking up blocks of reserve from open time, or even from reserves, is much more beneficial. If you picked up a block from open time, it pays by the block. If you aren't assigned a trip on the first day, you may want to consider giving away the remaining days. Then, your first day is a single block that pays 6 TFP. If you give away the rest of the days, that frees you to pick up a different trip--or even different reserve blocks! That will then give you a new pay-per-block guarantee. Here's a scenario: you pick up a three-day block from Open time. You sit the first day, and give away the next two days (you DO need to call scheduling and get 'released' to give away the remaining days). Let's say there's another two-day block in Open time, that you then pick up. You get assigned a long 2-day and fly it. Your pay is 6+14.5, 20.5. If you hadn't traded, your guarantee would be 18, and that's what you would get.

A technique that is frowned upon, we hear, is 'washing' reserve blocks. You can trade your reserve lineholder block with a friend who has picked up the block from open time. Remember, any blocks picked up from open time (even if they were traded into) are treated as separate reserve blocks. This isn't against the contract, and that's what we tend to live by--better to beg forgiveness than ask permission, in things that are non-contractual. That said, in the past chief pilots have counseled habitual practicers of this technique. !Warning! You knew it, probation pilot disclaimer!

In a lot of ways, being a reserve lineholder is a lot like getting paid only 6TFP for whatever you do. Fifteen-hour duty day, that pays 11TFP for a lineholder? You're getting 6TFP. Hard-working long three day, and your colleague is getting 25TFP? you're getting 18. Unless you practice smart reserve, and do these things that are legal per the contract.Hey, we didn't write the contract, we've just lived under the current reserve system for fifteen years & counting. It'd be really nice if the system made more sense, but...

OK, I'm trying to give away a partial reserve block--how do I do it? First off, you have to be released from a flying pairing or at the end of your RAP and in rest. Then you can CTRL-click on the days you want to give away and post them. Sometimes this takes a call to your favorite people in Scheduling, as does picking them up sometimes. Reserves can't be split on a flying overnight. 

This is bad for commuters. Let's say you live in LA, and your last leg has you flying LAX-OAK. There's a commuter heading to OAK, and you'd be happy to let them fly it so you can go directly home. This can ONLY happen in rare circumstances where the commuter is legal and willing to take your reserve day (and you'll lose the pay for it too). Sad but true. Additionally, if you're trying to help out a buddy who wants to give you their last leg so they can commute home, and is working a jetway trade, they won't approve it if you're on reserve.

Extra-advanced techniques:

In certain circumstances, it is possible to make more money by giving away a day of reserve. This is something to watch for at the end of the month. Let's say you are a reserve lineholder with a 90 TFP guarantee. You have already actually flown 84.00-89.99 TFP on reserve days (check your payroll report to be sure, and ensure that your pay audits are correct), and you have two days left of reserve in the month. One of those days is the tail end of a current block that you haven't gotten called in for, and the last day is a 4-day block with three days overlap in next month. If you can manage to give away (or are sick for) the last day of the current block (the 26th), you have reduced your guarantee to 84TFP. Since you have already flown over 84TFP, you have just exceeded your monthly guarantee! You will NOW get paid for the reserve flying you did, let's say 89TFP--plus the remaining days of reserve, at 6TFP, for a total of 95 TFP. Yes, once you're OVER your MONTHLY guarantee, every reserve day left in the month pays 6TFP. If you do NOT give away the tail end of the current block, and they don't wind up working you, you are--you guessed it--sitting for free (Yes, the actual amount you're sitting for will depend on the last day of the month. But if you've currently worked 89, and your guarantee is 90, you'll be sitting for 1TFP--or less if they work you the last day of the month). In all likelihood, you will work that last day of the month, but at least you'll get paid for it. Caution! It's easy to screw this one up, so make sure you understand it. This gets you paid at least 89 (or whatever flown) plus 6 no call on 31st or 6.5 if worked, for a total of at least 95:




This month shown below could get you only 90 TFP...or whatever you actually fly for the month, IF you get called out on the 30th. If you give away the 30th after you haven't gotten called on the 26th, you're only going to get the 89TFP, or whatever you've flown for the month.

The guarantee is based on a snapshot taken when you call in or have a day given away. If you call in sick on the last day, you have no reserve days left to get the 6.0 TFP. If you give away (or are sick) the last day of the current block, when they haven't given you an assignment, that drops your RPT, and puts you over the reserve guarantee for the month. Then, if you don't happen to get called on the last day, you're still getting 6TFP. We're NOT advocating calling in sick. But sometimes when doing the math, we start to feel ill. !Warning! Probation disclaimer...

Another advanced technique:

It's the third weekend of the month, with four 4-day blocks and a 3-day block. You've flown a lot already. Your first trip a 30 TFP 4-day, and your last trip was a 25 TFP 3-day. But you're headed into this weekend 4-day block with nothing in open time, and you're way down on the DRO since you've been getting worked. Trying to give away your block has been unsuccessful. What can you do? Time to try some CWA fishing. Go to the 'crew on a flight' menu and type in the day your reserve block starts and your domicile. This will pull up every crew going through your domicile that day. You're looking for 3 or 4 day pairings that originate in your domicile (they'll start with your domicile code-D for Dallas, for example. These are the trips you're fishing for. Send them a text message--something like the following:

"Hi John, please help a reserve not sit for free. I will fly your 3/4-day trip, if you want to trade it for my 4-day PM reserve. There's currently nothing in Open time. Thanks!" It's useful to make a note of what numbers go with who, so you know who you're texting with. This has several advantages--you just gave away some reserve liability, and assured yourself of being on regular pay, not reserve sub-pay, for that trip. Your odds of breaking guarantee just went up because you reduced your RPT. And, on top of that, you will not be sitting at home for free, thanks to working so much harder earlier in the month.

Tips for this technique--be unfailingly polite and honest. Thank people for considering your request. If there is stuff in Open Time, they may fly--but it might not be as difficult as their current trip, and they may get to sit home. Remember, you can't promise anything. The only crystal ball we have, the OT list and the DRO, are quite cloudy due to Scheduling 'holding' trips until the last minute, Split to cover trips, and the changing nature of operations. Be honest with people and your reputation will reap the rewards. Of course, under the FAR117 rest regulations, it's tremendously hard to predict if someone is legal for what you're trying to do. Block hour and FDP liabilities are often a month out, and no one has written an app for figuring it out yet. But this can help sometimes.

Another thing that will drop your RPT (and ensure you get paid) is a sick call. Of course, you should only use this if you are actually sick. In a scenario where you have worked 84 TFP so far on a guarantee of 90, and you have 4 days left of reserve in the month with only a tiny chance of getting called, you will get paid your guarantee of 90--sitting those last 4 days for 6TFP. Of course, if you do call in sick, you get sick pay for that last block (4.M.7). Your month total would be 84+24, or 108 trips. You can call in sick for one day at a time, or for the whole block. If you do have to call in sick, the call should be factual and without details. Give your employee number and let them know you're sick, you're a reserve, and you are calling in for that day or for the block. I know we don't call in sick very often, but they deal with it several times a day.

While we're on the subject of sick calls, let's also cover fatigue. As a reserve, your chances of getting fatigued are greater. Your days are often longer, with more changes, even before scheduling flips your RAP (takes you, as a PM flier, and puts you on an AM trip). You are the last backstop for safety, and should take that responsibility very seriously. Scheduling won't accept a "I'll be fatigued in LAX" call in advance, so the best way to call in fatigued is just to call in when you think you will be too tired on the flight you are about to operate. You will get paid, and they SHOULD put you in rest immediately. They will also want to know when you will be rested. This is tremendously hard to predict. You're not yet in the hotel, which may have a noisy convention going on. You don't know how long it'll take to get to the hotel that they find for you. You can say "I'll probably be ready for duty again in 13 hours" but it is also acceptable to say "I will call you when I'm rested." They don't like not being able to plan, but we often don't like things they do either. Note--you will not get paid for a fatigue call before you have checked in for a trip. It will be coded LN, or leave no pay, and the chief pilot may make a determination on your pay.

Continue reading with Part 5: Contract Highlights