I don’t know man.

For starters, in my experience, “[ELITT’ing] down 1 or 2 days” is very difficult to do and largely a matter of luck to be able to respond ultra quickly to the net zero going positive before anyone else does. Maybe you are just really lucky. Maybe you have some sort of software not available to most other people that allows you to automate that process.

Second, given the way our lines are constructed, it’s difficult to be awarded a line that pays significantly less block than all of the other lines. Yes, you can go into ELITT and try to trade trips from your line for lower block trips, but then trips like that in ELITT are usually going to pay low credit.

Third, “bang[ing] in sick” pays straight time. And, with our rate of sick time accumulation, it’s hard to build up sick time at a rate that allows you to call in sick for a 3-day more than once every other month.

I personally don’t usually take advantage of the month-to-month overlap so I can’t really speak to that. But the rest of the strategies you’re saying you use to consistently yield not just 170 TFP per month, but 180 TFP per month, don’t really seem like they’d carry you across that threshold. The month-to-month overlap must be the key to the whole thing?

To summarize, then, you usually work 16 days per month and credit 19 days per month, with three of those days usually being a sick call at straight time every month?

Out of your, let’s say twelve-day awarded line, you are able to also consistently drop one or two days per month by being able to hit the net zero for the split second when it’s positive.

That brings you down to 10 days from your awarded line remaining. Then, you’re able to drop two or three days every month via the month to month overlap, which brings you down to seven days of straight flying. Depending on the month, it seems like it would take seniority to bid the overlap the way you want to in order to drop the days you want to drop but, like I said, I’m not real familiar with working the overlap, so maybe not.

So, let’s say those seven days of straight flying average 7.75 TFP. That brings you to 54.25 TFP. Then you pick up nine days of premium flying at an average of 10 TFP per day for a total of 90 TFP of premium flying and a total for the month of 144.25 TFP before your monthly sick call on a three-day trip paying straight time of 23.25 TFP, for a total for the month of 167.5.

Okay, I guess if all of those things worked out perfectly and you were able to consistently hit the net zero that I always seem to miss for some reason, build up sick time at a rate quicker than we build it up contractually, and work the overlap to consistently drop a 3-day trip every month, I guess you could consistently earn close to 170 TFP per month.

But I dunno - given all of the things that would need to happen consistently and require luck, good timing, and/or extra-contractual rates of building up sick time, it seems like a stretch for this to be something you can do consistently.