Originally Posted by SlipKid

I agree completely. ELITT is a great tool if you put a little effort into it, although it was FAR better before SWApA caved to the company and DTC became a thing.

The biggest issue limiting flexibility are DTC (red and yellow) days.

Typically, every single Friday and Saturday will be red at the opening, and if not, will be in short order. Thursdays and Sundays also often go red, but will just as often go positive later. Avoiding Friday and Saturday starts like the plague will go a long way in giving you more flexibility.

The second issue that affects flexibility is number of workdays on your board. The less you have to begin with, the more flexibility you'll have to move stuff around and rebuild an acceptable line either through open time or TTGA. I rarely even look at individual trips when bidding my monthly lines.

I look for lines with the fewest weekday workdays, in the shortest increments (11 or 12 day, weekday turn lines are my #1 choice but I rarely get them). I also look at month to month overlap, which, when done right, are a good way to get a few days pulled from the next month. The scheds software is getting better at limiting end of month overlap lines though, at least in the 11-13 day lines, but 3-4 day overlap trips are typically one of my first targets in ELITT. I put all or most of my trips into giveaway every month, which, if I get rid of a few, lets me cherry pick what little PM premium open time pops up, and if that doesn't work, I'll pick up easy weekday trips from giveaway.

Obviously, seniority plays a big part in this stuff, but even if you're junior it doesn't hurt to start messing around with ELITT and TTGA.