Alright, excuse me for asking some possibly dumb questions, but I'm just now really getting serious about airline employment...

Everybody talks about the wonderful world of "only working 15 days a month". (Or approximately that.) It sounds pretty good.

But here's a hypothetical from an oustider: How often does a pilot-- especially a new hire-- end up with, say, five 3-day trips spread out through the month, thus resulting in 10 days of painful commute effort, thus finally ending up with only 5 real days off at home?!? I understand such a month would be worst case, but I'm trying to see what's behind the silver lining!