Hot/ready reserve

averettpilot

averettpilot

Well-Known Member
Another “I’m ignorant to 121” things question and still learning how this side of things works. Curious how many airlines out there currently utilize hot/ready reserve, how, and why?
 
PSA had it when I was there (and I would imagine still does). 10 hours with a theoretically 15 minutes to the gate. Doesn't pay anything more than guarantee. 12 years ago (ugh!) the only restriction was no more than three shifts on a row but with paper lines your reserve schedule was locked at 5 on 2 off 5 on 3 off so I (as the junior most captain in base for theee+ years) did a lot of 3 days of HRV followed by one day of regular reserve followed by 1 day of HRV where I almost always got sent out for something stupid and then missed by commute home.

Current shop has it for the all cargo operation but it's built into the pairings so you are on 24 hours of 3.5:1 trip rig every day with an 8 hour airport standby window. They provide a hotel room or lounge and bed for that 8 hours and then you go back to your regular hotel for the rest of the day.

We also have airport reserve on the inter Island operation. It's a regular pairing that pilots bid via PBS (so it can be mixed in with other flying for the month) and never goes past the top two or three pilots in both seats. Pays 5 hours a day, is 8 hours long, and pays minute for minute on anything past the scheduled end of the Airport RAP. Junior guys dream of being able to pick up a shift.
 
It seems to be more of a regional thing than mainline - we don’t have it and I don’t think any of the legacies do. Not sure about WN.

C5 has it, Mesa has it. Republic has language in their contract for it but I don’t know if they actually use it - I’ve heard they don’t.

At C5 it was a 30 min callout - which you really needed at IAD because the gates were in A and the crew room was in D.

If you’re curious about a specific carrier let us know and I’m sure we can find the CBA language covering it for you.
 
At Brown they have hot standby in SDF, RFD, MIA, DFW, and ONT. I did a lot of RFD my last four years. It was very senior. Week on, week off, with a paid commercial deadhead in and out. It was a crew and an empty airplane ready to go in 30 min. 8 hours on duty (8pm to 4am) then back to the hotel. They have individual sleep rooms for the crews. I'd actually fly average 2 or 3 days a week. Some times they would get you every day and sometimes not at all. Once you were in the system and the plane was out of position you'd often end up as a reserve with a made up schedule. That sucked. Pretty cool video. (There is an MD11 at the end....)
View: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=585421058583571
 
No ready reserve at the love line, it’s all short (2 hours) call. There have been a whole bunch of sweeteners in the last two contracts which make reserve live much more palatable.
 
killbilly said:
It seems to be more of a regional thing than mainline - we don’t have it and I don’t think any of the legacies do. Not sure about WN.

C5 has it, Mesa has it. Republic has language in their contract for it but I don’t know if they actually use it - I’ve heard they don’t.

At C5 it was a 30 min callout - which you really needed at IAD because the gates were in A and the crew room was in D.

If you’re curious about a specific carrier let us know and I’m sure we can find the CBA language covering it for you.
Click to expand...

Somebody who works there will need to chime in, but I'm pretty sure United has it (they call it field standby).
 
BobDDuck said:
PSA had it when I was there (and I would imagine still does). 10 hours with a theoretically 15 minutes to the gate. Doesn't pay anything more than guarantee. 12 years ago (ugh!) the only restriction was no more than three shifts on a row but with paper lines your reserve schedule was locked at 5 on 2 off 5 on 3 off so I (as the junior most captain in base for theee+ years) did a lot of 3 days of HRV followed by one day of regular reserve followed by 1 day of HRV where I almost always got sent out for something stupid and then missed by commute home.

Current shop has it for the all cargo operation but it's built into the pairings so you are on 24 hours of 3.5:1 trip rig every day with an 8 hour airport standby window. They provide a hotel room or lounge and bed for that 8 hours and then you go back to your regular hotel for the rest of the day.

We also have airport reserve on the inter Island operation. It's a regular pairing that pilots bid via PBS (so it can be mixed in with other flying for the month) and never goes past the top two or three pilots in both seats. Pays 5 hours a day, is 8 hours long, and pays minute for minute on anything past the scheduled end of the Airport RAP. Junior guys dream of being able to pick up a shift.
Click to expand...
I’m at PSA and we still have it. It’s 8 hours and no more than three consecutive and no more than eight in a month. I live in base so if it weren’t for HRV reserve life for me would be perfect. Coming from 135 I find it incredibly annoying because even they wouldn’t make me sit at the airport for an ASAP. Doesn’t seem anyone cares about it though once people move on to the line so I don’t hold much hope that it will be a point of negotiation whenever we might come up for a new contract.
 
averettpilot said:
I’m at PSA and we still have it. It’s 8 hours and no more than three consecutive and no more than eight in a month. I live in base so if it weren’t for HRV reserve life for me would be perfect. Coming from 135 I find it incredibly annoying because even they wouldn’t make me sit at the airport for an ASAP. Doesn’t seem anyone cares about it though once people move on to the line so I don’t hold much hope that it will be a point of negotiation whenever we might come up for a new contract.
Click to expand...

At least it's only 8 hours now.
🙄
 
In all of the ready I sat at SkyWeezy I got an actual “ready” call exactly once. Usually I was rerouted out of it before the RDY, and all the ready was was a “point of contact” because “call for release is scary uwu.”

The Air Line has voluntary airport standby, new in this Agreement, the details of which escape me because I’ve only ever seen it in open time once in my category and I didn’t ask for it and it didn’t go to me.
 
Autothrust Blue said:
In all of the ready I sat at SkyWeezy I got an actual “ready” call exactly once. Usually I was rerouted out of it before the RDY, and all the ready was was a “point of contact” because “call for release is scary uwu.”

The Air Line has voluntary airport standby, new in this Agreement, the details of which escape me because I’ve only ever seen it in open time once in my category and I didn’t ask for it and it didn’t go to me.
Click to expand...
Call for release. If Bonnie answered hang up and call again.😂
 
I sat airport reserve in ORD and SFO for SkyWeezy. IIRC some days were an hourly call out, (2 I think) and others were 15 minutes or something to respond at the airport. I don’t remember how it was bid or awarded.
 
A lot of it depends on if you can sleep through the duty period. I was not a sleeper and just sat in my sleep room playing on the computer until 4am.
 
Air Beachball has hot reserve. It's in a hotel room, or a crew room. It's rare since we're getting rid of the Amazon flying. But people that lived in base would get a hotel room for the reserve shift and do classes or nap. It worked well for a lot of people.
 
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