Very interesting discussion, with lots of good thoughts.
I've lived under the PBS regime long enough now to form some opinions. While I can certainly see the desire for some pilots to have more flexibility when it comes to amount of hours work, I'm experiencing that it's MUCH more of a benefit to the company than it is to the pilots. "The Spread" at UAL used to be 78-81. That was the number of hours all our lines were built to. Then the spread went to 65-95 (depending on fleet), and now it's back to 70-89, with the option to go to 95 (for the A320 fleet only. All other fleets are 70-87 flex 89). The company ROUTINELY forces our bottom line holders into the extremes by adjusting the amount of reserves it wants. Literally from month to month, I get a forced 70 hour line followed by a forced 89 hour line with 12 days off. How do they make it all fit? By building trips with 33 hour layovers. This makes the "fly 12 of 13 days over the holidays" possible. All this despite my standing bid of desiring to fly 75-80 hours a month with max days off. The company clearly likes having the flexibility more than the pilots. Sure for the senior folks it's nice to be able to get what you want month to month, but those of us on the bottom of the list are paying for it with our hides. Oh... and before you say "just be senior". That's not always an easy thing to do when you are at a shrinking company. You start out in the upper middle, and before you know it, you are holding onto the last line in your seat. So bid off you say? How! We rarely actually have a bid!
My biggest problem with this whole issue is the fatigue factor. I'm gearing up for my routine fatigue call around the holidays. Sorry, but I'm just not built to fly 12 of 13 days with 2 all nighters sandwiched in with early departures. I fear that I'm in the minority with my willingness to call in fatigued. It scares me to hear a pilot complain that he's exhausted all the time, but insisting that he/she keep up a 100 hour month. At some point, that's going to bit him/her. And when it does, it's going to be bad for ALL of us.
Just some Tuesday morning thoughts.
Total thread drift... sorry.
P.S. Since I'm adrift - how did the company so easily pull one over on ALPA with regards to work rules. The JNC is fighting hard (and meeting resistance) for UAL work rules as the superior contract they want to adopt. Umm.... those work rules were set in Ch 11 Bankruptcy. Depending on your perspective, they might be better than CAL's, but they still TOTALLY BLOW. Why are we considering draconian CH 11 work rules??