I had a pretty good run as an FO, consistently picking up at least 1 GS a month and usually being able to cherry pick exactly which one. Still make way more as a captain. But that's comparing NBA to NBB. I have no idea what the math would look like as a WBB.

 

The super rough answer is, roughly halfway between the two, depending on the BES seniority involved. But, the bigger difference is in QOL, especially for a commuter who can bid DH starts/finishes as Scoop described.

 

Long time listener, first time caller. On RES for first time in ages, lucky enough hold a line almost from the get go on 717. Have a carry in from Sept, along with CQ and a week of VAC (with the two free days on the front end.)
As of now, I've got LC Oct 3, then a stretch of X days right into CQ, followed by LC again (16-17) and then straight into vacation. I end the month with the last week (27-31) back on LC. Any suggestions on how to make myself mostly unusable?
I'm a commuter and expect some SC shenanigans, but it looks like I can't do any X day swaps for that last week yet. Icrew throws an error about "violates off day grouping requirements." I've done the "if needed" slips for flying and SC, after reading some posts on here, but never tried them before.

 

Having done all three, my NB A pay blows them both out of the water. However, when I was a WB B pre-rona, GS#1 almost never made it down to me and GS#2 weren't really a thing. With the understaffing they're doing on WB's these days, I bet I could do better as a 350B. A 350B buddy is averaging over 110 hours/month on single digit days actually worked. I'm certainly eyeing it and wondering if their plan is to stay the course on WB understaffing.

 

Yeah I got my eye on WBB too. Not to derail the thread but I have this nagging paranoia the 7ER will go away and all those senior dudes will displace me, so I'm coming up with a plan of what my best B seat will be for that worst case scenario. If I can't hold WBB, I think I might try to be a real masochist and try the 737B. Would put me around 25%ish percent.

 

There are a variety of ways to play WBB.

Hard time line - it's efficient (7hrs/day) goes junior, limited BT for GS
Commuter line - DH days, may need broken trips, more BT available for GS
LCA line - reserved for FOs who could be top half on the WBA list. Can get cutthroat when a pilot senior to you calls the junior FO to swap.

Min reserve - lots of couch time if you hold 4 day blocks on weekdays. GS as you see fit. Top 25% may get late month GS with banked PB.
GS early, late reserve - can't roll thunder, but an early month GS snags 20-30 hours above guarantee and wipes out a few res days. Bonus for strategy when moving X days to strand a 2-3 day unusable block. GS are junior early in the month because the seniors want banked PB days.
Max pay reserve - just say F it and bid one or two long blocks early. You will fly once or twice but also maximize opportunities for banked PB days, this is where 1,000 hour months are made Top 25% to do this reliability.
MinMax reserve - drop a few res days to minimize exposure, snag a GS to boost pay. Relative seniority determines where you set your GS window. May generate banked PB if senior enough to get late month GS.

Banked PB days are pay/credit when dropping a trip. Using one or two in a hard time month can put a line holder solidly above the GS trigger with plenty of block time available for that 20-45 hour GS. Getting 4 banked PB days is a setup to break 125 hours the next 4 months with regular line GS.

The downside of any of the res GS strategies is that you are now "on call" 30 days instead of 18.

 

Are you talking on the NB side? Those DH day ones have all but evaporated for even the most senior

 

The way I understood the conversation btw Meme & Fangs - they meant there is a pay/QOL balance somewhere in the middle between NBA and WBB, especially for commuters.
Meme compared NBB to NBA. Where it's an obvious trade of QOL for more money. Local NBBs have less QOL to lose and just want the pay boost with upgrade to NBA. If you are commuting, now it's a tougher call.

Fangs mentioned that the Pay vs QOL tradeoff is not as lopsided when you compared NBA to WBB, especially for commuters, because he was referring to Scoop, who suggested bidding/flying WBB trips with DH on both ends.

Example:

Do you want to commute from RJserviceTown, USA, to NYC NBA, to cover 3 airports? To make NBA $$$?

Or do you want to commute to NYC330B, with PM starts and AM finishes, or - even better - DDH both front-end & back-end? Basically only worrying about JFK, and with some schedule control to employ Gunfighter's WBB playbook in post #4036.

Anyway that's how I read it, flame away

 

Gotcha. Thanks. Way better than a AI summary

 

Yeah, and I will say in my case having no kids and not needing specific days off a month hardly ever it's barely noticeable change in QOL. If I get any garbage trips awarded to me, open time is plentiful enough that I can swap out of them. I can count with 1 hand in 2 years all the bad trips I had to fly because I couldn't swap them out.