The WS mafia, as some call it, is a senior group that bids good trips that are then placed on the swap board for straight pick up (or just PDd) and then their schedule is clear. Supposedly down to 0. Then they go back in and pick up good WS trips with low block and full credit. They want trips with the most CR and min TAFB and put themselves on short short call to get them. I've had 88As explain it to me, 88Bs are kind of coy about it when asked.
They WS until it becomes apparent that they should've GS'd but then they WS anyways. There is a lot of this.
A good day or two day trip comes up in open time you'll see it go very senior and very quickly. Ive talked to Captains who do it, their joke is if they get injured their spouse has been instructed to go back and pick up as much as possible before telling the company.
So yes, WSs are senior, in seniority order if they meet credit requirements. And guys will do it day after day back to back because their schedules are wide open. I think they, in times of no GS, can still score 100+ hours with little block. Are they playing with fire? Sure, at the end of the month they'll pick up less than ideal WS trips if short.
You do see that a lot but if you want to try it you better be senior.
You act like this is a bad thing? It is not. First, why would a senior guy bid good trips via PBS to just drop them? I do understand the WS a high credit/low block time trip thing. So if a senior guy does just this, so what? When he PD his initial good trip into open time, then that means a junior guy who ordinarily couldn't hold such a trip in fact gets the opportunity to fly them.
Second, it means that more reserves get to stay home, because the senior guys WSing the good one and two day trips that pop up are flying them, rather than reserves.
I've never understood the idea that junior pilot B doesn't "like" what senior pilot A is doing, even though it is completely contractually kosher. That is a different animal than the trip parking issue we had (which was fixed,by the way, due to line pilot input to their reps) because it WAS a way to circumvent the contract.
On the other hand perhaps you aren't objecting to any of it--merely explaining.