Originally Posted by
PossibleDeviation
This is what I do on a monthly basis and I'm just over a year in. I dropped my entire December 22' schedule (including a 4 day over Xmas). Didn't work all month until I decided I wanted to work towards the end of the month. Grabbed a CAP (company available premium) 4 day to credit 46 hours for the month; 27 days off. I currently bid at 75% of lineholders in ORD and can hold a decent line with two weekends off. I usually drop every trip maybe I keep one, for whatever reason, and then build back up to work on the days I want to work. I've got two young kids and our red/green & DTZ systems allow me to be home for literally every event/day that I need to be. With the flexibility to drop and list for x/y trips, I'm on pace to credit 1400 hours this year.
I will say the current trip mix makes things easier as well and we don’t have anything to require a certain trip mix. When the pairings were mostly 4days things are a lot more difficult. Not impossible but a lot more difficult. They switched to a much mor even trip mix last year knowing on paper it was more expensive but it would stand up the airline faster in irops and it appears to have worked. If any management newcomer wanted to put us all on 4day I believe they could and grid would turn red a lot faster. The semi senior will try to dump their 4days in hopes of getting the few turns and two days and everyone else ends up with an open time deadlock because the grid turns red after the 4day dump from the semi senior pilot that couldn’t hold shorter trips.
I’ll bid back to rsv if I have to go back to lines of 4days and nothing but 4days in open time.