Quite a bit depends upon how much time you are willing to spend on the computer, trying to fix your schedule. Of course, if you're on reserve and they're tight enough that they won't allow you to drop your R days, you're stuck. However, some of our very junior pilots are able to make their schedules look pretty nice, because they are tied to their computers, trying to trip trade. I'm relatively junior in my seat, my schedule looks like crap when it's assigned, but generally looks nice by the time I've flown it. However, I drop bad trips, and spend a LOT of time trying to fix it. For me, it's worth it, but it's exhausting, and not everyone wants to do that.