I've been at XJT since June last year. This month is the first month I've held any kind of line. I was awarded a relief line, which is made up of all the crap nobody else really wants. I was initially awarded three 4 days and two 3 days with a total line value of 78 hours. Using our system and the SLIW I managed to trade that to a 101 hour line with just two four days, a three day, a two day and a couple of day trips. I now have three weekends off this month too. This month there were 51 relief lines in my base and I was awarded number 45. So I am about as close to the bottom of the line holders as you can get and I still get the schedule I want with our system. Thus I am a big fan of our system, and I'd like to keep it.

I have also flown under PBS at a previous airline. What many XJT guys fail to understand is that it is the contract language that controls the schedules, not the system used to award the bids. HOWEVER, with PBS I used to find that generally what you were awarded was what you were stuck with, and it was often very hit and miss.