Good example of different priorities for different folks. With 30 in 7 and 1000 annual max hours, I don't have a problem at all with a 28 hour 4-day domestic trip.

As an example, let's take a rate of $160/hr. Let's assume the average duty day was 10 hours on that 4-day trip. That means the trip would pay $6400. Yeah, you'd work your butt off for four days. But if you have 3 of those trips in a month (that would basically be an 84 hour month), then your monthly pay would be $19,200 and you'd have 19 days off in a 31 day month! If that was your monthly average, then your annual pay would be $230,400. Basically back to C2K wages, but with more work on your duty days. That's a compromise I could certainly live with. I realize that your mileage may vary.

Okay, I know I'm dreaming. But we may need some out of the box thinking to get this profession back on track. I would certainly say that 40%+ pay cuts, doing away with promised retirements, and outsourcing massive amounts of mainline flying would fall into the "out of the box thinking" category. I'm just sayin'... you know, what's good for the goose... and all that.