Well, if it's any consolation to the reserves, we have the same attitude at AA. I.E, "Reserve was crap when I was on it; so, it has to remain crap for you." Or, "I agree. Your situation is awful and the company and the union must do something to improve the conditions for reserves--as long as it doesn't inconvenience me in any way, any time, anywhere."
The reserve system we have here at AA is just about the best of the major airlines. One month on, One month off reserve for the first 3 years; then, reserve 3 times/year (every 4th month) until you get enough seniority to be totally off reserve. The number of years it takes to get off reserve completely varies by base. It's one of the reasons that people are glad to see some more furloughees recalled. Traditionally at LGA, you were totally off reserve by 2-4 years (depending on how many people were being hired)--certainly nothing longer than 6 years. Lately, reserve has been going to 15+ years even at LGA because there was no one left on the active list with less than 5 years. At DFW, it goes over 20 on certain months. (BTW, it may be possible to get put back on reserve for a single month during the year--just depends on staffing.)
You can bid on to reserve early to change your reserve rotation; however, if you are very junior and you bid on to a rotation that does not serve reserve in Nov. or Dec., you may get bumped off that rotation by people senior to you bidding on to reserve in your reserve month. If you bid on to reserve during a vacation month, it does not count as one of your reserve rotations for the year.
Frontier Airlines has the best. "Reserves" are allowed access to Open Time (uncovered trips) and can plot their own trips on a first-come, first-served basis--what we call Availability or Open Replacement at AA. If you don't voluntarily plot a trip for yourself, then crew scheduling can plot one for you. Wouldn't that be wonderful to have that much control over your life on reserve?