Well, being Florida based shouldn’t be all that hard. While on reserve - well, you fly what you are assigned. You have some control over trip length by RAP bidding, but not much. Not too much control over that ever until you can hold a line, but the ability to bid a line and then trip trade really gives you the opportunity to sculpt your schedule to a great degree, better the more senior you are of course.

How merger will impact trip lengths depends to considerable degree on how the JCBA goes (assuming the DOJ allows it) and your guess on that is as good as anyone else’s. Jet Blue does Europe trips and is planning on expanding those so it’s gonna be different than what NK is used to.

Best advice I can give to anyone new to the 121 world is to learn how to use PBS to your advantage (assuming your carrier uses it). It never fails to amaze me how many senior guys don’t really understand the ins and outs of PBS bidding (in fairness, I don’t know $hit about line bidding), but learning how to bid effectively (ALPA has video tutorials) and learning the fine points of the CBA you are operating under will pay huge dividends over the course of a career.