Originally Posted by
pilotgolfer
Do they need company permission to deviate from the pairing?
Don't need permission, just need to tell them it's being done. It's called "fake DH" and is annotated on the schedule as such. It means you get paid for the segment even though you didn't fly it and also tells scheduler not to look for you when you don't show up for the DH segment. To be clear, the pilot TELLS the scheduler to annotate fake DH, he does ask for permission, per the contract.