Solution--I am not a techie but I have seen trading at other airlines and have stayed at a holiday inn express.

I believe other airlines have their trip trading systems separated from other crewmember website functions like checking the weather, notams, and getting FCIFs. The world doesn't stop when trip trading gets busy or malfunctions. I bet they have backup servers too.

The real issue is our IT department. Airlines, who make very little money for their revenue, if any, have more sophisticated setups than we do. Why?

We should have BETTER trip trading. We should be able to offer a trip on our line for trade or pickup into the open time listing. Put a asterick, change the color or whatever to ID them as from a crewmember and not the company. This would avoid TONS of trip drop/pickup requests the schedulers have to answer.

Speaking of scheduling - Why is it better for schedulers to have to execute each and every trade? If the trades supposedly get screened by the computer to determine legality, eligibility and time stamp, why include the human?

I'll tell you why - So they can override these checks when they want to. Not a conspiracy theory....fact.