I have too many other interests in life to fly any more than I have to, so I don't do open time.

However I don't have any problem with people who do, as long as there are no furloughs or gross management stupidity in progress.

Open time is really only a problem if a)the company relies on it heavily and b)people don't pick enough up, forcing junnior-man. Really our QOL should not be driven by who does or does not pick up open time...it should be cleary defined in our contracts. I think min 12 days off is a good starting point, with junior manning allowable ONLY during force majeur conditions.

Then if the company wants to go out on a limb and rely on open-timers instead of staffing up, the pilots won't be required to suffer when things go wrong. Another possibility would be for each pilot to commit to a certain amount of flying at the begining of the year...that way those that want extra time can get it, and the company can plan accordingly and rely on an appropriate amount of open-time flyers.