You're not talking to brick walls, you're talking with people who simply disagree. I really wish they'd plug our "desired" min day into Carmen and spit out a bid packet for each category to see how many would like them...I'm guessing many would not. The problem with packing that much flying into a trip is that we need the extra days off to recover, especially as we age. In my current category we have 3-days worth 26+12...9 days gone and you're done. Sounds great, until you realize you're body is wrecked and you need the day after to recover, so it might as well be 12 days of flying. Of course if you're a commuter this may be desirable, except that this trip has a early sign-in so you're coming in the day prior anyway.

When I first got on the 73N, we had a packet full of 4 leg, 4 day trips. Nice long layovers in good spots with a few hours of credit. I even flew a 3 leg, 4 day. But my absolute favorite trip was a 2 leg, 2 day, SAN or PHX overnight with a 18 hour layover. Hands down, the most lesiurely trip I've ever had. If they hadn't gotten rid of them, I'd probably still be on the 73N. But alas, the optimizer got fired up and they started tagging DCA/BWI turns on either end of the trip which made it a long freaking day and gave no time to enjoy the overnight. The 4 leg, 4 days all but dried up and the trips started flying A LOT more block, with a crap ton of < 15 hour layovers, which were not desirable to me.

I just opened up the 73N/320/7ER bid packets for my base...yuck. I say yes, they could use some more long layovers. Way too many 3 leg days with < 16 hour layovers. I sure hope we don't pass anything that entices them to pack even more flying into those trips. I'd like to bid back down to NB Captain some day, but not with the crappy trips we have right now.