I don't want to reinvent the wheel here, but I've been brainstorming since that MEC update and I really don't see enough "meat" to get me to a yes vote.

Here's three outside the box things I thought of that would significantly increase QOL for many pilots here.

It sounds like we might have a "holiday pay" similar to DL. Well, when u see that, what is that, maybe 6 days out of the year that you get thrown an extra bone? That won't get many guys to change their bids to increase QOL, just gives guys a "bonus" which I like, but doesn't change the bar on these type items.

1) Has anyone in the industry ever gotten weekend pay? Practically every industry in the world gets "extra pay" or bonus pay if they work nights and/or weekends. Why don't we?

Hear me out... Ever since I've been hired, we have a dynamic here that basically means, you either get all weekends off (seniority > 50-60%) or 0 weekends off (<60%). Obviously, u can take a risk by bidding reserve if you're > 80% seniority, but that's a big hit if you commute.

What if your trip touched a Sat/Sun, you get a 5% "add pay" for that trip? Not credit for PBS, but add pay.
If your trip covered Fri-Mon, now you get 10% add pay for that trip? So a 20 hr 4 day now credits 20 hrs, but pays 22 hrs. So a senior bidder can bid to work on all weekends, because they really don't' care and do four 20 hr four day trips that credit 80 that fly fri-mon each week, but pay 88 hrs for the month. 8 hours of soft time is pretty sweet for those guys that look for that kinda thing. And it may be more soft time if you think about 20 hr 4 days might credit 20, but only block 17-18, so some potential easy layovers too. A 24 hr 4 day over a fri-mon now credits 26.4 hrs for that pairing.

If you call in sick, you don't get the "add pay", just protected at straight time.
Reserves get .5 hr added to min guarantee for every weekend day covered. If they actually fly over the weekend, they get the 5%/10% discussed above in credit for the month. If a reserve calls in sick for the weekend, the "add pay" is removed.

What does this do? It now incentivizes pilots who are senior to have more choices. More $$, or weekends off. I would venture to guess that many pilots throughout the year would change their bids from some months to have weekends off, and other months to have the add pay for weekends. Now, when pilots bid for a line around 80% seniority, its much more likely they get 1-2 weekends off a month, versus 0 weekends off. Having 0 weekends off is horrible for those pilots with young kids at home. IMO, this is the biggest reason for pilots not bidding CA in conjunction with the higher number of commuters we have at United.

2) Give us a certain number of "Drop, no pay" options throughout the year (only 1 per bid period, but you could trade for more than 1). Lets say 6 per year for NB, 3 for WB (or tie it to a block hour). You could set the clock as a newhire to for 1/2 pilots to get even months and half get odd months where they are eligible to drop. Pilots can trade months they want to have the "drop ability". When you bid a new "Category" you're assigned either even/odd so that the company can manage coverage. There would be rules that you can't drop a trip that touches a holiday and add the superbowl to the holiday list.

Here's what this does...gives pilots more choice. It puts and "ante" in for pick up and trading every month. Part of the reason trip trading is darn near impossible unless you trade either the same footprint, or you trade multiple times, 1 day at a time is there's hardly ever anything in open time. I think this would be highly beneficial to the narrowbody fleets, probably wouldn't be used much in the WB fleets since trips are worth so much. However, if you're junior in a category, people have to beg to their CP for a trip off to go to a kids wedding, or a graduation. This allows them to drop down in that month, and pick up later in the month, or to plus up next month since there will likely be more trips available with this system.

3) More Golden days off. How about 2 Golden days off each month? 2 sets of 2 golden days off is kinda forgotten, but if you give every pilot 2 Golden days off each month, it doesn't affect coverage. Pilots would bid for those days off by putting multiple preferences for those Golden days off. That way, even a junior lineholder or junior reserve would most likely get one weekend off or their kids birthday off.

These items would be huge QOL items for junior guys. Senior guys in a category already have the QOL, but giving the extra pay would be win-win to trade a weekend or two to a Jr guy for more pay.
Unless you are already a senior WB CA, these items would benefit everyone. The suggestion #1 would even benefit those WB CAs since they would have the option of working over the weekend and getting a 10% boost or keep bidding the way they do now and forgo the raise.

How many out there don't bid up to WB CA or NB CA because they don't want to give up all that QOL just for a different airplane and QOL?
What am I missing and has any other airline tried options like these before?

Yes, some of these have a definite "economic cost" and the company doesn't necessarily like them. However, if there's an economic incentive to pick up flying on days off, it actually might offset some of the "premium flying" they have to offer, and I'd argue less people calling in sick over a weekend when they might lose a couple hours of add pay. How many guys use the "scheduling improvement" option when they are junior just so they can see their kids once every few months?

In addition, these items would fix the problem with guys not bidding CA.