You missed the point of why the company wanted ( demanded) the LTO reserve system. They wanted to prevent reserves from "timing out".
Pitbull,
If every trip/block had a name on it this wouldn't be a problem.
There should be only ONE bid. Your seniority gets you what you can hold....period.
At that point, you should be able to drop down to 40 hours if you so chose. All that open time now goes into additional lines (not East secondary lines to have position taken away)just "relief" lines of sorts.
Now, those with the "relief" lines can only drop to 40 via the ETB...that way ALL trips have a name on it. If you can't drop it you have to fly it. If it is on the ETB you should not be able to call in sick...cause we all know you weren't sick....I'm talking accountability here.
You would not need umpteen thousand reserves to support Block holder sick calls (cause they could not drop their trip) and trips that were left open for the AIL and that nobody wants.
Reserves would be for irregular ops and sick calls ONLY. Therefore, timing out wouldn't be an issue and you would potentially only be on reserve for 1-2 years.
Now, as far as reserve..you should not be on duty for 24 hrs. There has to be shifts or short/long call. Reserves should not have to be in base when they know they won't be used. If coverage gets to a critical point, the company calls and tells you such and you have X amount of hours to get back in base. Yes, I know this won't work with all (i.e. West coast commuters.)
Bottom line, even our current system MIGHT (I said MIGHT) be tolerable if you knew it would only be for a year or two. Now, that would be paying your dues, not 8-23 years on reserve.
That was one of the major problems. Unlimited passing. We had too many lazy ass f/a's who didn't want to work and just wanted the free money. Tell you what, give them your free money or better yet, start your own airline and hire these lazy people. We took a 13% paycut to keep these people around. I'm over that crap.
If I remember correctly, back in the day we were allowed to pass as many times as we wanted (which I did) as long as we still got our required time in (which I did). I didn't abuse the system, I used it to adjust my schedule just like the BH are afforded ways to adjust theirs.
BH get low block letters..therefore if a reserve passes to much and doesn't reach (say guarantee) then they should get a "low block" letter.