Originally Posted by Long Haul

There are a few different ways of doing this. Say it's Monday, and you want to fly on Tuesday. Use CCS on Monday morning to see what's in open time for Tuesday. If you go to trading>seniority trip trades you can enter either the pairing number that you want, or specific criteria, like a four day signing on after 12:00, e.g. You can also can set multiple bids and rearrange them as you like. At 10:45, all of those requests are compiled and assigned by seniority (at this point you are competing with line holders as well). At or after 11:00, the trips left over can be picked up on the Reserve Aggressive Pickup page, first come, first served. It is preferable to use criteria instead of specific pairing numbers, because there might be a trip that someone more senior to you drops, in order to get that trip that was in open time, and then you would be assigned their old trip if it meets your criteria. As long as everything's legal and contract compliant, crew scheduling doesn't get involved. Crew Companion makes this all a lot easier, and you can also see there if anyone else wants that trip by clicking on "desired." Don't forget to check the box that prevents line holders from stealing it.