Airport ready is awful. We have it at UAL and it’s only 4 hours and it’s still awful.
 
Airport ready is awful. We have it at UAL and it’s only 4 hours and it’s still awful.

When I was at PSA it was 10 hours and unpaid. It was pure hell.

Here, for inter island, it's 8 hours (1000 to 1800) and pays 5 hours per what you fly. Also pays minute for minute on any time at work after 6pm. The top two captains have taken every day of it since they could hold it. Similar on the FO side.

Just goes to show how important contract language is.
 
When I was at PSA it was 10 hours and unpaid. It was pure hell.

Here, for inter island, it's 8 hours (1000 to 1800) and pays 5 hours per what you fly. Also pays minute for minute on any time at work after 6pm. The top two captains have taken every day of it since they could hold it. Similar on the FO side.

Just goes to show how important contract language is.
We have add pay stipulations but only if it’s assigned not picked up. One hour of pay per shift after the first two (assuming all assigned and unused).
 
We have add pay stipulations but only if it’s assigned not picked up. One hour of pay per shift after the first two (assuming all assigned and unused).

That's terrible. And here I was convinced we had the worst system out there.
 
I actually didn't mind ready when I was a commuter if it was the last day of the bucket. It got me off duty quicker if I wasn't called and I could hop on an earlier flight home.

I actually preferred it and had a good routine. Get to the crew lounge at 4-5am (whatever the assignment was), sleep in the dark room, wake up, commute home.
 
I actually didn't mind ready when I was a commuter if it was the last day of the bucket. It got me off duty quicker if I wasn't called and I could hop on an earlier flight home.

I actually preferred it and had a good routine. Get to the crew lounge at 4-5am (whatever the assignment was), sleep in the dark room, wake up, commute home.
That’s a benefit of morning stand by. Drag yourself to the airport sign in then go sleep through most of your stby period.
 
That’s a benefit of morning stand by. Drag yourself to the airport sign in then go sleep through most of your stby period.

Our standby was 5am - 3pm. We had a quiet room but it was in the MX hangar, right off the breakroom and shared a (thin) wall with the woman's restroom for Dispatch/Scheduling. It had a couch (that I would NEVER touch having heard some stories) and a very uncomfortable lazyboy chair.

I was the most junior captain in base (and 3 from the bottom system wide) for about 3 years so I sat a lot of hot reserve. Some times 3 out of my 5 days of reserve in a week. At the time I had a Jeep Cherokee (2 door). I'd leave the back seat folded down and I put in a therma rest air pad and a cheap comforter. In the fall and spring, with a light blanket, I could roll into the parking lot at 5am, call scheduling to check in and then go to sleep in the back until about 9am. In the summer it was ok sleeping back there until about 6:30 when the sun came up. In the winter time I would add two sleeping bags and a hot water bottle. I had a 30 minute drive to the airport so the car was normally warm by then. After an hour or so with the car off it was back down to whatever temp it was outside (Ohio in the winter) but pretty warm inside two sleeping bags and comforter. The worst part was getting out of the sleeping bags. If I had time I'd slide out, turn the car back on, and then get back in until it was warm. If I got a call (15 minutes to the gate limitation) I'd have to just get out right away and freeze until I got my work shirt and coat back on.

Fun times.
 
Update on the subject
There's a standing bid now, and options other than LGA 145 are available.
ORD CRJ is not the best thing since the sliced bread, but ok on the CA side.
If you live in base. Commuting to reserve is still commuting to reserve, even if you fly quite a bit (50ish hrs a month on the CA side)
Got some 1/18 hired 145 DECs transferring out of LGA on the latest bid, so there is that too.
 
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