Do you LOVE it?

[Chi829]

wow, Dyane, thanks for the input. One thing that make me a little nervous about him getting a line in the very near future ( i wish there were another ASA lady here) is that I beleive you start out doing weekend lines, naturally those go to the junior people because the senior guys like to have the weekends off, and with me working during the week, it only means that when I work, he's usually off, and when he flies on the weekend, Im off, so not real sure how that's going to work out. Did you or anyone else out there deal with that? The schedule that your DH has now seems nice. So he does 4 on 3 off? When he gets more senior will it go to 3 on 4 off? I am slowly learning to take one day at a time. when he gets a line, he'll get a line, for now, it's not so fun. [img]images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] Reserve bites the big one!

[Kristie]

your right! reserve does bite the big one!

we've dealt with many a years of weekend flying. I got lucky in that my job has some flexibility to it - so long as i get my 40 hrs in during the week, i can come in/take off when i want/need to. they've been pretty understanding about needing to see my husband and about our traveling (we try to take 1 or 2 weekends a month fri-mon and travel overseas). i just always have to make sure that i keep my end of the bargain and be the most productive when i'm at work!

I dunno how it'd work out if i didn't have flex hours! i'd probably never see him except for a few hours at night! is there a way you could work flex hours into your job?

[fly-girl]

I think a lot has to do with the particular airline too. When my husband first held a line, I was worried that he was going to be working all weekends too and I hated the idea of it because thats the only time off I have as well. I'm not sure how ASA is but DH was able to trade his trips every month to make sure he had weekends off. If he couldn't trade to get weekends off he would trade for a trip that had a Cincinnati overnight during his weekend trip or he would try to pick up a trip with a cool overnight like a resort city in Mexico or a trip with a long layover in a cool city like Boston and I would try to meet up with him. I don't do that very often but every now and then it works out.

And even if he holds a line and is working weekends, at least he will only be gone for four days at a time instead of five or six if he's on reserve right? unless ASA has five day trips?

yep, his schedule is pretty much a four day trip followed by either 2, 3, or 4 days off. If he was more senior, he could probably hold more days off but that would also mean less flight hours per month and he usually likes to get at least a little bit over minimum guarantee. Min. guarantee at his company is 75 hours per month so he tries to fly between 85 and 90 hours per month. If he lived in Houston, he might be able to hold two day trips but I'm not sure.

DH worked almost all weekends when he was on reserve so I mostly took that opportunity to visit family out of town or go out with my then single friends. Or I would go shopping or work out. I'm working on my master degree too so unfortunately I always have studying to do on the weekends too [img]images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

i have rambled long enough. hope this helped!

[Chi829]

it's funny, when you think you're rambling, Im hanging on to every word you're saying, [img]images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] Kristi, my job is anything but flexible, as far as working when I want, I work M-F, 9-6, and that's it, no moving days around to accomodate me or my soon to be marriage. It's funny, I work for a flight school, I recruit student pilots, you would think that maybe it would be a little more flexible, no such luck though,,,, FOOEY! Fly-girl (dyanne is it?) Im not sure how trip trading works yet, but if bill has the option of trading trips to have weekends off that would be fantastic! This weekend coming up will be the very first weekend of reserve for him, since he started new hire training back in october, he has luckily , somehow, gotten every weekend off, so I am sooo apprehensive about this weekend and what im going to do to keep myself busy if he flies,,, either way, i plan to go to ATL, to either sit reserve with him (fun fun) or if he gets called in, maybe I'll meet up with him on his layover. He sat reserve all day yesterday and all day today and didn't get called, so now, he's on his way home,,,,, yippee!! [img]images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I swear I tell my dogs that daddy's coming home and they know what Im saying! ok, now I've REALLY lost it haven't I??

[Chi829]

Kristie, what kind of schedule does doug have right now? Is he home on the weekends? With 7 years with Delta, is that considered pretty senior?

[roz]

I hear you Jo. Not everyone has that kind of flexibility in their work schedule. In our business, we have to discipline and fire people for not being there when they are supposed to be there.

Reserve does eventually go away. When it does depends upon the particular airline. Heck if you have 7 years at US Airways, you are long gone and furloughed forever now. It's the same thing with United. And American continues to furlough. So some may find that they are going back to reserve.

Trip trades are such that if you see someone who wants to trade a trip and you agree, you put in for it. Then scheduling has to approve it. They might not because it might make one of the traders illegal in terms of time. But, if it is not causing any problems, they approve it. So if you need a day off in the middle of the week for a conference at school, you might want to trade to give up the weekend.

By the way, when our son was younger, I had Charlie bid to get the weekdays off and work weekends. Our son, Evan, played on two serious ice hockey teams. He needed to get to practice and school games during the week. He needed to get to games on the weekend. I travel and work long hours. So Charlie took care of the weekdays and I took care of the weekends. And we always had dinner on the table. You do what you gotta do.

You need a plan B. He's not going to call in sick because they know he wanted off and will fire him. He's off the few days before. Let's think outside the box here....

[Amanda]

I like it just fine, but...I LOVE that he loves it. It's nice to see how excited he gets when he talks about flying. I've never had a huge problem with him being away, since we work hard to keep in touch (phone, email, text messages, etc).

We went about 2 months without seeing each other when he was in training and there was a 6 month period where I would see him only 3 days a month. Now I see him 3 days a week (usually). He's lucky and has never been on reserve (or possibly he was on reserve for a week... can't remember). I'm a pretty independent person and I have a lot of hobbies so I keep busy when he's not here. I don't think he could deal with me if I was too clingy or cried every time he left! (Not saying this is what you do!)
It will get easier with time.