Not at all. It's pretty much what many junior people do to improve their lives, one positive that we can have at FedEx. If a trip is ugly and I can't do better, I drop it or give it away (though that will be impossible to do in December). I'll even drop an entire month, and take the chance I might not get anything decent, but some months I fly a fair amount, some months I fly very little---I fly when the trips are good.

I trip trade my a$$ off, both with open time and other people. I get up early in the morning to swap for the decent sick time trips. I bid a long reserve string twice a year to knock it out with training and get the view/add window trips. It's a pain in the butt to be tied to a computer and to not know if I'll get paid 20 hours or 90 hours in a month, but so far, it's worth it. You can do this on the Airbus, but I don't know if it's possible on the others.

Some people may consider this bragging, others may consider it pathetic. It works for me, and its nice to have this option. Of course, there are people with much better trip trading skills than I. If anybody else wants to share their secrets, I'm all ears.