Originally Posted by
squirtinvert
I am a noob SWA guy. That being said I understand both sides of the argument for block bidding and see each side. I have heard grumblings of cartels being unfair to the pilots not in them. Can someone experienced at SWA explain both sides of the argument for and against cartels (as much of an unbiased view as possible).
The upside of the cartels, assuming you're in one, is that you can maximize your pay and or time off. The downside is that you basically hand control of your board to the cartel leader(s),and they play a shell game on your and other member's boards to manipulate the flying to maximize the TFP for each member. The lower on the pyramid you are, the worse deals you're gonna get.
For everyone NOT in a cartel, you lose out on open time that you would otherwise have gotten, because they've circumvented the rules to get themselves, temporarily, under the cap.
There have been many attempts to regulate this behavior, but all have either petered out or met fierce resistance.
IMHO, the only way to curtail it without screwing the entire group is to make the cap ONLY apply to trips taken from open time. This way, a guy who's .01 over the cap because he overflew his awarded line won't lose out to a guy who was, and will be 20-30tfp over the cap 5 minutes after open time closes and the cartel Don puts the trip they parked on another board back onto his.