I left a year ago and was a junior CA on the CRJ when I left. Day one of reserve is pre-assigned 4am RAP. So if you commute, you will need to be within 2 hours of your domicile at 4am on day one. Lots of airport ready with no compensation above guarantee. Six day reserve blocks are common and you may start on a two or three day trip that gets extended to the full six days. There are restrictions to the extensions but they get creative to ensure they don’t apply. (Turn back)

I spent 7 years there and overall it was a positive experience. However the last few years were increasingly less positive. Being a senior FO use to mean QOL- but the flying really got worse to the point of no QOL even as the top 10% bidder I was on the FO side. Can’t do day trips if they don’t have any day trips.

If you want fresher information I can put you in touch with several people. PM me if you wish.

Aroo? You didn't want the AA flow? Was it close?
 
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.



Question for you airport ready guys, how soon are you expected to show up at the gate while on hot reserve? Is it expected you're "waiting" in the crew room? What's the language on that?
 
Question for you airport ready guys, how soon are you expected to show up at the gate while on hot reserve? Is it expected you're "waiting" in the crew room? What's the language on that?

It was expected that you'd be at the plane in 15 minutes. This was possible when our ready reserve room was in the terminal next to ops, but when they moved it to the hangar it was hard to get there that quickly. You could play games a little bit and "miss" the first call and wait for them to call you back (5 minutes normally) to get a little bit of a head start. Also, oftentimes you had a bit more time to get the plane off the gate. There was a driving range across from the airport access road and in nice weather airport reserves would some times head over there and hit a bucket of balls.

Where I'm at now, the airport reserve has 30 minutes (technically) but are often asked to get there faster and some times are given way more time.
 
Friend of mine just left Virgin America (Alaska) after a year for a street capt spot at Envoy :eek:
Said he met another guy doing the same thing!
 
I would still be there waiting for it.

Plus, why would your turn down an actual offer from a major to wait for a flow?

Friend of mine just left Virgin America (Alaska) after a year for a street capt spot at Envoy :eek:
Said he met another guy doing the same thing!

:aghast: They'll be regretting that decision the first day of Airport Reserve, let alone after years of it or if Envoy meets the same fate as the wholly owned regionals Comair and Skyway.
 
Friend of mine just left Virgin America (Alaska) after a year for a street capt spot at Envoy :eek:
Said he met another guy doing the same thing!

I didn't know there were two. But yes I know one guy doing it for sure.

To be honest if I had less than 12 months on property here and the goal was to get out to the big 3, then I would have done it too.
 
They'll be regretting that decision the first day of Airport Reserve, let alone after years of it or if Envoy meets the same fate as the wholly owned regionals Comair and Skyway.
I'm sure that sucks, but a lot has gone to ess since the eskimo took over. There's no good will at all.

Do they get plugged into the flow as well?
Yup and hired as captains I think.

I didn't know there were two. But yes I know one guy doing it for sure.
To be honest if I had less than 12 months on property here and the goal was to get out to the big 3, then I would have done it too.

Yeah he's been here a year and a week, schedules were killing him with the 11 days off compared to the 16+ he had been getting. Was LAX based and he said the other guy was JFK. He was a Tulsa commuter having to two leg it. Wife's a doctor so it wasnt really about the money.
 
I'm sure that sucks, but a lot has gone to ess since the eskimo took over. There's no good will at all.


Yup and hired as captains I think.



Yeah he's been here a year and a week, schedules were killing him with the 11 days off compared to the 16+ he had been getting. Was LAX based and he said the other guy was JFK. He was a Tulsa commuter having to two leg it. Wife's a doctor so it wasnt really about the money.


Good luck to them, and I wish them the best. I'd LOVE to see mgt's face in the exit interview when they get told someone is leaving Alaska to go back to a regional...
 
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