Originally Posted by iaflyer

Yeah, but SWA pilots can't drop trips into open time. The only way to get rid of a trip is trade it with someone else.

Also, their airline runs on people picking up open time. Reserves fly at or above guarantee regularly - they are more like unscheduled line holders than reserves. Also, regular pilots are rerouted often - it pays very well - but it seems to happen a lot from what I see from my friends.

Other contracts look nice when you cherry-pick parts, but each one has trade-offs that we don't see.