1. Flexibility improves with improving relative seniority. Guys sometimes commute to a different base, vs flying out of their current drive to work base, for better relative seniority if they live in a senior w/b base and can commute to a more junior n/b base.

Pick up trips? Very easy. Guys routinuely have a 75-85 hr bid award and pick up to the monthly maximum (typically 90 hrs up to "FAR MAX"...with deadheading and soft time you can pick to 100 hrs of hard time and soft time/deadheading trips/etc and generate up to much higher numbers. My PR wa 125 hrs of pay in a 'FAR MAX' month??? So 25 hours of 'soft time' (none pilot in the seat time).

Stacking trips to have time off in the middel of the month? Yes. It gets easier with more relative seniority. It's easier to try and get time off over the 'end of month switchover'. You want a 10 day break? In the middle of the month that's harder to do then trying to get 3-7 days off at the end of one month and 7-3 days off at the beginning of the next month. You can generate 6 mini vactions of 7-20 days off with utilizing 'end of month' and 'beginning of month' bidding for days off. PBS allows you to choose 'maximize time off beginning/end of month'. If you're senior enough you just stack of all you trips outside of the days off you want.

Trade trips? Yes. But it's a far way from being guaranteed. The shorter the trip, in general, the easier it is to trade but it often involves trading to pick up more time. IE dropping a turn to pick up a 2-3 day trip, or a 2 day trip for a 3-4 day trip.

Can you give away trips? Absolutely. You can drop all the way to zero...but a pay check of $0 is tough to live with. But as a junior guy? If the trip is that great someone more senior would have probably already gotten it via PBS. There's a reason junior guys get trips...the more senior guys didn't want them That's why guys stay senior in their bid status - they can hold better trips and it's much easeir to get rid of them. One of the ways to maximize your pay is to be senior and drop the first couple of trips to give yourself room for overtime/premium paid trips. As you pick up premium trips you keep dropping you bid awarded trips to give yourself some days off to allow you to pick up more premium trips. That's how guys are getting 150-200 hrs of pay in a month. You won't be able to do this as a new junior guy. You'll fly with guys 'working the system' and as you get more senior you'll figure out what options you'd like to pursue. That's the hard core 'premium game', there's the 'IMAX game' where you fly a LOT, and utilize trip pickups and drops, to generate lot of pay over 10 months and then have 2 months where you can't fly BUT you get average line pay hours (typically around 75-80??) for those two months BUT you can put in for overtime/premium pay on every single day since you have NO assigned trips. The next 'game' is the 'landings game' where you only fly as FB (relief pilot) on w/b's and lose your landing currency. With careful timing, and bidding, you can get removed from trips when you lose your landing currency. If the simulators are busy you might get a week or two off awaiting a landing currency sim'. This are all AA options. DL and UA's contracts don't allow these options and their pursuit of premium/overtime trips is different.

2. There's 2 systems - SC - short call and LC - long call. SC you'll have to be in base on your reserve days. It sucks for commuting. You'll need a crash pad or hotel. That's why SC reserve goes to the most junior pilots in the bid status. LC? Twelve hour notice. There's a window if guys callc in sick late in the afternoon where, depending upon how many flights your commuting city has, you can't get to your base that evening OR the next morning if it's an early assignment. On w/b's it's not an issue which is why w/b flying is VERY popular with commuters as the overwhelming number of departures are in the afternoon or at least mid-late morning. Early morning w/b departures almost don't exist.

Utilization? Summer is high. Low season varies. It varies from base to base and bid status (base/seat/equipment). In general n/b pilots fly more. Anything from turns to 4-5 day trips. W/b's? They're probably 80-90%(?)3 day trips. Only two days of availiability left as a w/b rsv pilot? You've probably got 2 days that they won't use you. W/b guys in PHL fly very little over the winter on reserve because so much of the flying is seasonal to Europe. Fewer trips in the winter means more and more reserves to fly fewer and fewer trips. Other w/b bases fly less in the off season but not to the extent the PHL w/b pilots do.

Can you pick up trips on reserve? No.

The good news about commuting from DFW is the high number of flights to each crew base. Lots of options. The bad news on reserve is there might be line holder commuters who've reserved the jumpseat before you even got your LC reserve assignment (you're not same day commuting on SC. You'll be sitting in a crash pad hotel).

3. DFW? It's quick right now. Several months? Minus time in indoc, fleet training, IOE, will all reduce the actual length of time you'll be commuting. Guys are getting DFW almost immediatley. *But* that's a snapshot of today. Bid statuses can have periods of more, or less, inflow. Where you would slot in is beyond the ability to make a perfect estimate. If the company decides to add more flying in other bases the base of your choice might have less new opportunities as guys retire. But overall it's fairly quick in today's market that, so far, is anticipated to continue for awhile.

FO lineholder? Looks like 4-6 months?? Second from the bottom 737 FO in DFW has Christmas off. Seems like dozens and dozens of guys senior to him flunked bidding if he got Christmas off. Actually has a full weekend and a couple of other weekend days off. That's a unicorn award as a junior guy.

DFW Captain? Looks like it's about 3000 numbers from the bottom guy. So about 4 years (again a snapshot of today, the future might vary due to staffing changes, DFW getting more, or less, than any additional pilot slots, etc).

Commute to reserve for a quick upgrade? Sitting SC out of base? When you live in DFW? Why???? Hey, it's a free country but be careful what you ask for. Wife of AA pilot, looked like about 4 year seniority, commuter, bid for Captain. Woo hooo, I'm a Captain. Wife, and apparently her husband, complaining about how bad it was commuting to SC reserve. Instead of being away from his family for about 8 nights a month it had jumped to probably at least 15 nights. The guy HAD to know that or he's an idiot. Going from a line holder commuter to SC reserve with young kids. No one forced him to do that. To not understand the choice he was making is no one's fault except for his. Upgrade in base that you drive to? ASAP? Sure. SC doesn't isn't as painfull if you're sitting SC and playing with your young kids in the pool. Sitting SC reserve in a crash pad while you're wife is trying to deal with the kids and you're not there? There's a reason Captain upgrade is going so junior, thousands of FO's more senior are saying "no thanks." Be aware of what you're bidding for, from a lifestyle/family perspective, when you enter an equipment bid (especially upgrades). You advance quicker through the FO seats than you will through the Captain ranks (inmost periods, not true for the guys stuck as FO's during the 'lost decade').

How bad will it be to be a junior CA on SC for a long time? It's cool being Captain...sitting in a crash pad, away from your family or friends, gets old quickly. You'll be able to get hired and look at the days off junior Captains are getting. Getting most weekends off is hard to do even as midpack to junior line holding Captains. Long time saying about bidding for other seats - "you bid it, you own it."