So, about these...

Logic would dictate that the more unproductive trips (like above) would be left in OT for use by the reserves - which is is exactly what happens. The company makes the most use of its pilots if all lineholders fly their schedules to the max extent AND NO MORE and the reserves fly up to but not over the 75 hour mark on the "unproductive" leftovers in OT. Max revenue (for the cost of labor) is a balancing act between the use of reserves for sick calls and the residual of OT.

To do this, the company MAY BE USING (I have no proof) a couple of "tactics." One is (obviously) construction of the unproductive like above - that we all know for sure IS happening. Another, is to "HIDE" trips. By having trips that would NORMALLY be picked up kept out of OT until after 9:30am the day prior allows them to assign a reserve to the trip. If there aren't reserves available, the company can still use the PAF. Am I the only one who notices these trips being added late?

I suspect there are multiple sources of the hidden trips. Perhaps some come from a pilot going out on FMLA/long term leave or leaving after receiving a line for the month. I also am somewhat suspect of the practice that perhaps some trips just never get put into OT after the line selection process the month prior which is a clear violation of the CBA. Some are "broken" trips that occur when pilots time out or become otherwise unavailable in a certain location short of returning to base. Let's say there's a 4 day trip out of DEN that overnights in IAH, CLE and MCO (yes, I know, very few of these but humor me). After getting to IAH, the FO gets a call for a family emergency - he/she calls the CPO, gets permission to leave the trip and goes home. Normaly a reserve would be DH'd out to IAH to continue the rest of the 4 day (which is NOW a 3 day). But, what if there isn't an FO available with 3 days of RES anywhere (this does happen). Well, then the trip is kinda piecemealed out to a couple of different reserve FOs - it's not uncommon for a trip to have a multiple RES pilots from multiple bases all be needed to fly. The company COULD take the last 2 days of that 4 day (which overnights in CLE) and offer it in OT - but this rarely happens. Ive often wondered what is cheaper - DHing people all over (and paying for hotels) vs. just putting the remainder of the trip in OT at a base and letting it be picked up. My real wonder is how this company will change when we eliminate short term reserve (like United and Delta did - Delta has an 18 hour call out).

Another tactic is what I call "selective assignment." I've long been suspect of the lack of immediate trip assignment in FLICA. If it were truly automated, it would take miliseconds to assign trips - yet it always seems to take a few hours (sometimes days). The explanation offered to me was that my request always seems to trip a "flag" and a scheduler needs to look at it. It's my thought process that the company assigns trips - to SOME degree (certainly not all the time) - based on who they want to have the trip the most. If 9 people request a trip in OT, it's supposed to go to the first request but I'm not sure if anyone outside of the company has visibility of this. I have heard MANY TIMES of stories of FAs who call in, ask for trips and somehow get rewarded with them. Lots of FAs know schedulers by name. I've heard stories of FOs requesting trips in aggressive reserve but weren't awarded - then they find out later their buddy who's also on reserve and DIDN'T request the trip was assigned to it. I've even been assigned trips and then had them reversed once someone "reviewed" it for legality. Yes, trips have made it on my schedule after I picked it up them removed hours later. I've also called into scheduling and asked when my pickup request would be approved (as it's been in there a while) to be told they will contact the FLICA approver to look at it. In just about every single instance, the trip was either approved or denied in the next 10-15 minutes (which indicates to me that ALL schedulers have FLICA approval/denial access and it's looked at on a workload basis).

Again, I have absolutely NO PROOF of any of this and the tactics mentioned above don't seem to be used all that often. It might be in the weeds what little savings it would create, if any. What might be a better explanation is that the schedulers just aren't that savvy and none of this is on purpose - it's just the inefficiency despite their best efforts.

I would suspect perhaps someone from the scheduling committee might chime in and explain that none of this happens, etc.