Originally Posted by
Oberon
What does company gain by forcing pilots to fly some minimum number? If a pilot drops his line via the trade board it's cost neutral, if he drops into open time the company saves the value of the dropped trips. It doesn't make sense that the company would care one way or the other.
As far as I can tell the only reason we are discussing it is because gzsg posted it. He may have made it up, which isn't totally crazy given he didn't bother to mention where his rumors originate.
There are two reasons why the company would not like this if it becomes wide spread. The first is if you have a 2 pilots flying half schedules each month the company has to hire a third pilot to cover the flying. They are now paying 3 benefit packages.
The second reason is pilots in this situation are more likely to drop trips during peak flying periods like summer and holidays. This makes staffing more unpredictable and increases premium flying.
So far however none of this has been a issue since it's been very rare.
It might however get more common as the number of over 60 pilots increased.