TONY: "Reserve" OPEN TIME

I go back on duty in a little less than 2 hours following my 2 scheduled days off.  Is it just me, or do days off go by much faster on Reserve than they do when you hold a regular schedule?

One of the cooler Reserve aspects of our current F/A contract, from an outsider's point of view, is the ability to pick-up a trip from Open Time when coming back on duty from days off.  It gives the Reserve SOME degree of control over a schedule that, otherwise, is in the hands of Crew Scheduling.  I thought I'd investigate the details of how a "pick-up from days off" works and queried my colleagues in various social media groups where our Reserves "hang out".  One thing about the Reserve groups:  if you ask them a question, you will have any number of answers in NO TIME!  While the responses to my inquiry were pretty consistent about "how" to pick-up, some were more thorough than others.  The thoroughness of some of the answers tended to "fill-in" the picture more completely.

First of all, there has to actually be an open trip in your base before you can pick it up!  In my base, Houston/Intl, there is a dearth of available flying, so nothing to experiement with.  There are also caveats:  a Reserve can be "bumped" from the trip and/or position by a more senior lineholder.  The exception to this is a "golden" trip which must be picked up during a prescribed, smaller window of opportunity.  Even on a gold trip, the Reserve can be bumped from his/her position by a more senior F/A at check-in.  (These are arguably the most complained about aspects of our Reserve rules; the bumping off of trips and/or positions.)

So, as I explored my potential options in CCS (our schedule-management computer system), I went to the "Open Time" screen as I normally would.  I was a little taken back by the header at the top of the display admonishing me that I am a Reserve and may only pickup from Reserve Open Time.  Of course, ROT did not show the same, few trips that regular OT showed.  I went one step further and clicked on the "Pickup Airport Alert" option (Airport Alert means that a Reserve dresses, packs, prepares as if going on a trip but drives to the airport for a period of 2-6 hours waiting for a trip to be assigned because of operational need).  None was available.

In spite of the growing weather threat to our mega-hubs of DEN, ORD, EWR and, potentially, IAD, I'm still pretty far down on the list to be called.  But I have everything ready:

bags > packed
food > packed
toiletries > refreshed
meds > packed
grooming > complete
uniform > ready
dog > walked
cat > petted

OK, CS.  I'm ready...