Originally Posted by BusBoi

How are trips assigned? Is it seniority or credit-balanced/first in-first out?
When scheduling is covering open time the day prior, trips are awarded (ie when a pilot asks for it) in seniority order and assigned in reverse seniority; meaning junior to senior. If a trip comes up outside of the normal coverage window (1000-1500 daily) trips are assigned by days worked; meaning a senior guy who has worked 2 days will get assigned a trip before a junior guy who has worked 6.

At my current airline a pairing is assigned to the most junior pilot who is legal and available, unless a senior pilot preferenced "call me first". Only after a reserve has accumulated credit to min guarantee do they start assigning based on credit.

Also, it sounds like if you live local and don't want to work the method is to bid short call. Is that correct?
Yes. This is one prevalent technique. Of course, when you're junior, you'll work more, we all know the deal, its just how it works. However, short call, even for junior folks seems ok on average. The company is getting more efficient with reserves and LC gets worked way more (kinda the point like it or not) and SC is for the pop-ups (weather, short notice sick, diverts, etc.) I've seen months where very junior bubbas on SC don't even work 7 days while guys senior to them that are on LC are working 15 and hitting the 85 hr max.