Don,

When you say “build a schedule” maybe you meant pick a line. We aren’t actually building our schedules exactly we bid on lines, relief, and reserve lines that are already built and then we have ways to tweak that schedule.
Reserve pilots have much less flexibility. When I was on rsv I typically had 4-5 day reserve blocks of which they kept changing from morning to evening during the block and dropping down to min and making it unable to drop. Some of our pilots have been on rsv for right at a year so keep that in mind.
As a line holder I typically am happy with the flexibility though. Personally I like the ability to tweak my line at different times and even drop a trip when needed with some restrictions. Generally I can get a specific day or two off a month just using FLICA and don’t usually have to work out trades.
I hope this helps inform you a bit your decision is yours to make, BTW the Southwest window is open.
Cheers,
Nacho