Originally Posted by
crewdawg
Having done all three, my NB A pay blows them both out of the water. However, when I was a WB B pre-rona, GS#1 almost never made it down to me and GS#2 weren't really a thing. With the understaffing they're doing on WB's these days, I bet I could do better as a 350B. A 350B buddy is averaging over 110 hours/month on single digit days actually worked. I'm certainly eyeing it and wondering if their plan is to stay the course on WB understaffing.
There are a variety of ways to play WBB.
Hard time line - it's efficient (7hrs/day) goes junior, limited BT for GS
Commuter line - DH days, may need broken trips, more BT available for GS
LCA line - reserved for FOs who could be top half on the WBA list. Can get cutthroat when a pilot senior to you calls the junior FO to swap.
Min reserve - lots of couch time if you hold 4 day blocks on weekdays. GS as you see fit. Top 25% may get late month GS with banked PB.
GS early, late reserve - can't roll thunder, but an early month GS snags 20-30 hours above guarantee and wipes out a few res days. Bonus for strategy when moving X days to strand a 2-3 day unusable block. GS are junior early in the month because the seniors want banked PB days.
Max pay reserve - just say F it and bid one or two long blocks early. You will fly once or twice but also maximize opportunities for banked PB days, this is where 1,000 hour months are made Top 25% to do this reliability.
MinMax reserve - drop a few res days to minimize exposure, snag a GS to boost pay. Relative seniority determines where you set your GS window. May generate banked PB if senior enough to get late month GS.
Banked PB days are pay/credit when dropping a trip. Using one or two in a hard time month can put a line holder solidly above the GS trigger with plenty of block time available for that 20-45 hour GS. Getting 4 banked PB days is a setup to break 125 hours the next 4 months with regular line GS.
The downside of any of the res GS strategies is that you are now "on call" 30 days instead of 18.