Originally Posted by Typhoonpilot

The B777 does a lot of 3 and 4 day trips, yes. A 3 day trip is actually only 2.1 day to 2.5 days. Meaning it leaves early on the morning of day 1 ( 0500-0800 pick-up from home ) and gets back late on day 2, often just after midnight so you get home somewhere around 0200 on day 3. Or it leaves mid afternoon on day 1 ( noonish pick-up from home ) and gets back landing at 0700 on day 3. Those are Europe trips.

The Asia trip tend to leave at 0300 on day 1 and get back at 0500 on day 3.

Most layovers are 24 hours. There are some 48 hours layovers and the rare 72 hour layover.

Again, there is no such thing as a typical schedule. For February I can look and see one friend who has 4 Europe trips ( 3 Pragues and a Nice ); 2 day turns; 1 night turn; and 3 days of recurrent. 9 days off and 5 rest days. That's a pretty nice schedule actually. Another friend who bids ULR flying has 2 ULR trips to the States; a Zurich; 1 day turn; and 1 night turn ( the short Doha one ). He has 14 days off.

If you're junior and in a bottom bid group you can expect the 9 day BKK-SYD trip on occasion. Or some of the longer freighter trips.

We do have trip trading so it's sometimes possible to find an Aussie who'll take the BKK-SYD trip from you. One of the best deals I ever got was an Aussie who wanted my 11 day SIN-MEL trip in exchange for 2 BKK-HKG trips and 3 of his days off. Back then the pay didn't change so it was a fantastic offer. His family was in MEL and that trip had 7 nights in MEL so it worked for him as well.


TP