You CAN swap for a Q trip if the trip you are dropping is on days with adequate reserve coverage.

I always have a large lithium Anker in my suitcase, so it can't go in the cargo bin.:D

A lot of the newer pilots don't know about the swap board and/or don't realize that if their trying to PD a trip without coverage and it languishes as a Q trip that simply listing said trip on the swap board may allow many to pick it up because on the swap board they are not limited by ALV restrictions as white slips are.

Sometimes an email or text to the pilot trying to drop the trip can inform them of this information.

When I was an FO I flew with senior captains who never heard of the swapboard.

Way back in the day, I flew with a Captain that didn't know how to white slip or what a white slip was. He had been on the DC9 and then M88 and barely lived in the airline world. No cell phone. Just flew his schedule and lived his life. I kind of admired him.

Always made it habit to not discuss schedule strategies wth anyone senior to me. :)

The Q is a qualified personal drop. It means someone is trying to drop the trip and it's run through a PCS and because of reserve coverage it didn't drop. You cannot swap for the trip because reserve coverage won't allow it. If you happened to get one on a swap it was it dropped into open time, meaning it was no longer a Q rotation, then you got the swap, like you said adequate reserve coverage.

Incorrect. If every day of the trip you are trying to swap has sufficient reserve coverage, the swap will go through. Doesn't matter what the Q trip coverage is. See 23 I.14

Ok, unless something has changed, during a PCS run the computer looks at APD's, then PD's, then swap with the pot. The trip is labeled as Q because the pilot is trying to personal drop it and there is insufficient coverage.

If there is sufficient reserve coverage the Q trip will drop into open time as a personal drop and yes the swap will go through because the trip is now available in open time. I see the reference you posted in the contract.

I think we are all saying the same thing in the fact that the reserve coverage plays a part.

No, that's not what I'm saying. The reserve coverage only matters for the trip that is currently on your schedule. The trip you want to pick up does not need to be dropped off the current pilot's schedule. You are able to swap for it because there is sufficient reserve coverage for you to actually PD the trip you currently own(had you chosen that route) and swap for the Q trip.