July 2026 Reserve Committee Update

Over the past few months, the Union has heard from many of you with questions and concerns involving pre-select awards and removals. We would like to provide a refresher on some of the rules that govern pre-selects.

Which pairings am I allowed to open bid on as reserve pre-selects?
As per B8.26.07 of the Collective Agreement, you can bid on any known open flying with check-ins falling upon the first day of a reserve pattern. After an agreement reached between the Union and the employer in October 2021, it was further clarified that while the first flight within a pairing may not necessarily depart on the first day of a reserve pattern, the check-in itself must be on the first day of a reserve pattern. You may also open bid for pre-selects involving your RDOs, so long as the pairing itself and its associated crew rest all finish before your next scheduled reserve pattern (B8.26.08).

All open bids must be made prior to 1000 each day in order to be valid (B7.03.02.01, B8.26.03, B8.26.06). Reserve pre-selects are awarded by seniority, subject to language requirements and classification (B7.05.01, B8.26.04).

Is Crew Scheduling allowed to remove my pre-select?
On June 5, 2019, the Union and the employer reached an agreement (Click HERE to view) that the Company will not remove a Reserve Blockholder from a preselect pairing prior to report time to assign them to an earlier pairing unless the conditions of B8.26.09 are met on the pre-select pairing or until the Company has reached the seniority of that Reserve Blockholder in the draft sequence pursuant to the Collective Agreement.

B8.26.09 An open pairing once awarded to a Reserve Blockholder will not subsequently be changed except in the event of an irregular operation caused by cancellation, consolidation, substitution, misconnection, overprojection or illegality at Home Base. The employee involved will revert to the reserve status s/he was scheduled to hold had s/he not been awarded the pairing.

For greater clarity, the parties agreed that Reserve Blockholders on pre-select pairings are a part of the Draft Sequence in the Junior Legal employee (B9.03.02.02) step of the sequence.

B9.03.02.02 Junior Legal Employee: Except Reserve Blockholders on inviolate days off cannot be drafted.

The Union and the Company also agreed that when the Company is covering flights under B9.03.03 due to insufficient time to apply the standard draft sequence, reserve crew members on pre-select pairings will continue to be handled in reverse order of seniority among other crew members on their flight.

B9.03.03 Airport Move-Up: Where, due to insufficient notice, the standard draft sequence cannot be applied, flight coverage will be provided by move-up of partial or total crews in reverse order of seniority, to the extent required to minimize disruption of that crew or subsequent crews in the following sequence:

B9.03.03.03 Crews from that Base into scheduled days off.

Please note that if you are drafted off a pre-select pairing at any point, draft premiums are only paid on non-inviolate days off (RDO’s) and please remember that you cannot be drafted on inviolate days off (GDO’s).

Can Crew Scheduling assign me a pairing before a pre-select causing me to go over my MML?
Yes, but with a few caveats. First here’s the relevant contractual reference from B8.22.01.04 in the Regular Flight Assignment Procedure portion of the reserve language in our Collective Agreement:

“A Pairing shall not be assigned when the effect of the assignment would be to overproject the employee and cause them to drop a preselected cycle. In establishing the overprojection, Return to Base Extension B5.01.05 will be applied to the preselected cycle.”

Let’s break this language down to understand its practical application. The language above states that you cannot be assigned a reserve pairing that would intentionally overproject you and cause you to drop a reserve pre-select later in the month. Therefore, it is important to clarify what exactly constitutes overprojection in our Collective Agreement.

For reserves, there are just two variables to consider. First, one has to consider their Maximum Monthly Limitation (B5.01.01 of the CA). This is by default 80:00 (or 85:00 in up to 4 block months per year). Your MML may be reduced in a number of scenarios that come up during the block month.

Secondly, whether you have a pairing overlapping from this block month into the next one matters. If you do, then only your MML is used to determine your limitation before you are considered to be overprojected (B5.01.05.01). If you don’t have an outbound overlapping pairing, then you need to calculate what’s known as a Return to Base Extension. To do this, look at what the Total Flight Time Credit is for your last pairing of the month (this may be a pre-select you may already have been awarded), divide it by 2, and then add it to your MML (B5.01.05).

All of that together determines how far you can work past your MML without doing Voluntary Extension (which increases your MML to 100:00). As you can imagine, this means that the bigger your last pairing of the month is, the further you can potentially work past your MML involuntarily before you are considered to be overprojected.

For reserve, a pre-select later in the month can be used for the purpose of calculating a Return to Base Extension and thus determining your limitation for the block month before you are considered to be overprojected.

Crew Scheduling is changing or removing my pre-select. What should I do?
As mentioned above, there are only two conditions that allow for this: an IRROPs situation affecting one or more of the flights within your pre-select, or if Crew Scheduling is in a drafting position. When in doubt, ask Crew Scheduling over the phone at the time of your call to clarify the reason for the change or removal. If either of these two reasons are provided, the change / removal is permissible, since today’s operation takes precedence over tomorrow’s in the event of an IRROPs situation or drafting situation taking place today. If neither reason is provided, then the language mentioned above from B8.22.01.04 applies with respect to overprojection.

If you are ever unsure whether the removal from a preselect was legal, please reach out to your local union office.