Originally Posted by
disenchantMINT
If it's not working for a local guy, he can just drop it even if it takes him to zero, right?
It should be denied to anyone outside of the base, because a) it can allow pilots to get trips their seniority otherwise wouldn't hold, b) may prevent an in-base pilot from getting a 200% flying opportunity, and c) distorts base staffing. It's a benefit to the company and the one selfish pilot who gets the trip, but a detriment to the pilot group as a whole. This is stuff people should have learned by the time they got out of the regionals.
Not quite how that plays out.
A personal story here. I have family that I’ll be seeing in South Florida over thanksgiving. That weekend, there’s plenty of trips in every base and on both the tradeboard and the open time board. Since I was able to drop to zero (awarded thanksgiving off as a 1st year FO I might add) and rebuild my schedule, I had that weekend off too. Since I’ll be in town, I decided to pick up a trip from another pilot giving them a that weekend off. All because we’re able to pick up out of base. Win, win for everyone.
I believe the disconnect between us and y’all are that have pilots in bases that they don’t want (this isn’t the case for a large majority of the NK pilot group). So picking up out of base doesn’t have the same effect as you believe it does.