Possible. Back to the original (side)point, however, I don’t think the swap board is an enabler for the company to understaff the airline. In the example of senior guys dropping awarded schedule and picking up fragments, if they are able to PD trips into open time, then pick up fragments, then they’re actually adding credit back into the schedule that the optimizer has squeezed out. Additionally, the trips PD’d into open time are more likely to go out as GS, or be broken up into less efficient (from the company standpoint of zeroing out credit) trips that go to reserves that don’t match up perfectly with trips available, or again, as GS.

I don’t begrudge pilots using any of the contractual scheduling maneuvers to enhance their QOL (pay, time off, days at home, etc.) as they see fit. There are clowns that I’ve flown or spoken with that I think do themselves a disservice with their scheduling behavior, but that’s for them to decide, and i can’t think of a single thing that another pilot did with his/her schedule that hurt me. Live and let swap.