It would seem that if they can drop their entire schedule, then pick up broken trips, they’re not actually helping the company out because the trips as constructed have been squeezed of all credit, whereas the broken trips effectively add credit back in because ADG is well above block.

 

You're talking about brown paper bags right?

 

I try and do that same strategy as a junior pilot and am occasionally successful. Not sure what it has to do with the ALV+15 loophole though. At least in my category there are no more than a handful of swap board transactions every month (and no one would pick up my garbage anyway).

I just don’t see the Swap board loophole as that big of an issue on the narrow body side. Green slips go all the way to the bottom in pretty much every narrow body category so not sure the incentive of doing all that extra work at straight pay when you could do it at double pay if you wanted.

 

I suspect his point was that if people couldn't pick up above the cap via the swap board, those senior guys wouldn't be able to drop their schedules to zero.

 

I’ll admit up front that I don’t have any data but I suspect for every overachiever breaking the pick up limits there’s a someone dropping below the ALV and some like me dropping below the LCW. It’s about earning efficiency. If I get to 70 hours that gives me the greatest GS potential without worrying about picking up anything. If I get a GS then I just pull 5 hours from my bank and it’s a great month. If not, I bid reserve on high credit months and get 82 hours to even out the earnings without really working much. Tools are just tools, they are used to craft. I’d rather have more tools than less to craft my schedule. All the swap/drop/trade fixes suggested are going about it wrong. ALV limits and especially TLV are where the effort should be.

 

Possible. Back to the original (side)point, however, I don’t think the swap board is an enabler for the company to understaff the airline. In the example of senior guys dropping awarded schedule and picking up fragments, if they are able to PD trips into open time, then pick up fragments, then they’re actually adding credit back into the schedule that the optimizer has squeezed out. Additionally, the trips PD’d into open time are more likely to go out as GS, or be broken up into less efficient (from the company standpoint of zeroing out credit) trips that go to reserves that don’t match up perfectly with trips available, or again, as GS.

I don’t begrudge pilots using any of the contractual scheduling maneuvers to enhance their QOL (pay, time off, days at home, etc.) as they see fit. There are clowns that I’ve flown or spoken with that I think do themselves a disservice with their scheduling behavior, but that’s for them to decide, and i can’t think of a single thing that another pilot did with his/her schedule that hurt me. Live and let swap.

 

I like it. It allows junior pilots to get trips that they would otherwise not be able to hold. And as we’ve seen, there are fewer & fewer good trips out there.

 

Yup.

Just flew with a top 3% FO. He bids 4 day trips with desirable 30 hour layovers and his schedule is empty within hours of posting to icrew. He only flies the easy high credit stuff and the only reason he can do that because pilots go over ALV + 15 taking his 4 day trips via the swap board. He is not alone in this practice -- its what I would do if I were in the right seat. It would be almost impossible to drop a 4 day trip via the swap board if pilots couldn't pick up beyond ALV + 15.

 

I’ve swapped into some great 4-day trips with low block & 32+ hour layovers. I don’t think I’ve ever exceeded ALV+15. It’s usually a one for one swap with the occasional 3-day for a 4-day.

 

I'd be one of those "triggered" pilots who opposes P2P swap restrictions. I've used the swap board in combination with open time swaps to build a 110 hour schedule in one month and subsequently drop to less than 50 hours the next month. It is a great tool for building a multi-month schedule that suits my personal life. During marching band season, you will find my weekend trips on the swap board minutes after schedules are out in iCrew. I couldn't drop them all without the swap board. After football season I will fly a few hours over ALV and put some time back in the bank.

It isn't the evil pilot job killing tool that many make it out to be. Flying ALV +15 isn't sustainable, as you will hit your 1,000 FAR limit if you consistently do it. It is used buy pilots who take a sprint then walk approach to working vs jogging all year long.