Originally Posted by Gunga Din

You got it more or less exactly right.
Perhaps I should not have used the word kink. I see it was taken to imply something nefarious. Perhaps I should have used the word manipulate. I fly with guys who like to talk about a paycheck they make or made. And when I asked them they almost always describe manipulating their schedule. They talk about some call from scheduling or something popping into open time and they dropped this and moved that and BAM they made good money. These guys are almost always senior, instructors or single. I include single because several of the guys seem to not value days off like family guys. Then I think, what if we didn't hold schedule manipulation as the holy grail? What would change if everyone instead wanted a good paycheck when they just flew their awarded line? This would benefit everyone. I don't want to have to watch flica on my days off. I don't want my family to have to reshuffle their lives every month because our focus as a group is only on the rules available to 15-20% of the pilots. If our NC insisted that an 80 hr line be paid industry standard for the type of equipment we fly then we wouldn't have to cozy up to scheduling or be Johnny on the spot with my laptop open and ready to fire at any open time trip and all the other BS I hear just to be proud of my pay at the end of the month.
And after that, if you still want to work 22 days a month, go for it!