Originally Posted by
xjtguy
So the question is, will it withhold a trip from a senior pilot when a junior pilot has vacation or training so the junior pilot can meet the credit window? Is the senior pilot being denied a specific pairing and is it being awarded to a junior pilot in those cases.
No. The system has no idea what anyone junior to the pilot whose schedule is currently being built is doing. It tries to build a pilot's schedule with the available pairings -- if it meets the threshold then his line is complete and his schedule is closed and the systems moves on to the guy one number junior to him. If the system is unable to build a line that meets the minimum credit threshold, then he is assigned reserve and the system moves on to the guy one number junior to him. Nothing anyone junior to him does has any bearing on his schedule.
It is possible, and I think it happens every month, that a junior person that has vacation is able to reach the threshold and hold a regular line while a senior person who did not have vacation was not able to reach the threshold and is assigned reserve. But again, when the system is building someone's schedule, it has no idea what the people junior to that pilot are doing until that person's schedule is complete and closed and the system moves on.