Monthly Guarantee?

[WIPilot]

How do monthly guarantees work? Its to my understanding that when on reserve that is the minimum time that they pay you for. Is that how it works for line pilots also? or am I totally wrong in my understanding? When you can hold a bid do you normally fly above your guarantee? or right at it? Pardon my ignorance

 

[Sig]

How do monthly guarantees work? Its to my understanding that when on reserve that is the minimum time that they pay you for. Is that how it works for line pilots also? or am I totally wrong in my understanding? When you can hold a bid do you normally fly above your guarantee? or right at it? Pardon my ignorance

FWIW- you're not ignorant. You asked a specific question and didn't assume anything- a great attitude.

Yes, typically the guarantee works for both lineholders and reserves (atypically meaning a different number of monthly hours guaranteed between the two, but still a guarantee). Flying above guarantee is a different animal, and the short answer is it depends. The lines at PDT are typically 85-90 hours, so yeah- lineholders always do. As a reserve pilot, the only way you can do that is by being utilized a lot... which is difficult. The difficulty is manifest- our contract doesn't offer pay protection to reserves (if you're scheduled to fly 6.5 hours in a day, and you cancel a pair of legs, a reserve holder isn't PP... a lineholder would be), lots of guys on reserve, and a crazed unwillingness to properly use pilots.

At my airline, you can add about 10% to an awarded line's credit to guess what you'll end up with at the end of the month due to weather and full-out cancellations... but that's under the provision of pay protection. Tough, huh? Our reserves get hosed.

It depends.

 

[WIPilot]

Thanks for the info!