Originally Posted by
threeighteen
*Most* other airlines allow pilots to drop/swapping/trade turns, layovers, or even just one leg as long as the trip is being broken in domicile or in the case of dropping one leg, if the pilot is able to find another pilot willing to take that one leg (called a jetway trade).
That's a nice option, but not really what was being discussed. You responded to someone who was of the opinion that a few hours less per diem was worth having a series of individual hub-turns that could each be swapped for better trips if they show up in OT. It didn't sound like the person you responded to was looking to dump legs and potentially give up pay. He just likes the option of swapping maybe BOS and EWR hub-turns for a couple of nice easy ATL trips in OT. The alternative to keep the per diem clock going would be a change to allow returning to base while on a single, longer trip with the series of hub-turns baked into the one trip. If that's the case, then the day to day trip trade option would be out, especially once the trip starts.