Originally Posted by Denny Crane

If he wanted to commute to NYC then yes he could but maybe he doesn't want to commute. Your right there is no quarantee that the junior NYC pilot will get anything but the potential is certainly there.

I'm based in SEA. I know a couple of guys that live up here in SEA but cannot hold the category, they commute to either SLC, LAX, or MSP where they can hold a line. They would love to be based here sitting reserve. Now, these are friends of mine but, with an out of base swapboard, these guys could potentially swap all their trips with open time trips out of SEA (we generally have low reserve coverage) and become a shadow SEA line holder screwing a more senior pilot that is on reserve and based here.

Now you say: How can that happen? Doesn't PBS award all the lines possible? Well, yes, PBS does do that with the known trips at the time of award. I underlined that because it's a key point. After the award there are always many more trips that get re-entered in to open time for whatever reason. An out of base swapboard would now allow these guys to swap their SLC, LAX, or MSP trips (or most of them) with trips that leave out of SEA. Trips that would go to reserves out of SEA or are potential greenslips for the SEA base. These trips are now gone out of the SEA base and in another base that, more than likely, has better reserve coverage because, we both know, the company will not agree to something that would give them worse coverage.

That's my take on it.

Denny