I just tried to swap for a Q trip and when it got denied, I call scheduling and they explained to me that the Q trips can be picked up but not swapped. The pilot who is dropping the trip isn't interested in picking anything up in exchange. They just want to drop the trip. The Q trip will either get picked up or stay on their schedule as opposed to going into open time.
I may be wrong but that's what I got from scheduling this week.

He's saying like say there is no coverage for a sat/sun. Trip is a Q because it flys on Fri/sat/sun. Say you have a trip for wed/thurs/fri, then you could swap your trip (just as you could PD it) and pickup the Q trip since your dropped tripped is covered by adequate reserves. If you do a swap your not limited to the pickup limits which would help if your dropping say a one day for a four day.

If it was a Q trip and there was sufficient reserve coverage during the run, then then original trip would be dropped into open time as a normal trip. It would no longer be a Q trip. Drops run first. The second part where you discuss PD your own trip also wouldn't happen. That is a totally different request and then you would have to white slip the trip that you want. You don't PD a trip and then swap because you have nothing to swap.

In that scenario, you are dropping your trip as a PD under the leave request since there is sufficient coverage. You would then white slip the Q trip. It is not the same as a swap.

Do you mean you can throw a trip onto the swapboard and someone else will fly it? They get paid and you don't? Do you have to pick up a trip in return? Is there a limit?

If somebody will take them, you can drop all of your trips on the swap board. They just have to be desirable enough for someone else to want them.

I recommend that you read all the various documents provided to you via ALPA and the company. Lots of answers there.

But to answer, yes you can "throw" a trip onto the swapboard. I've done it countless times. Of course the trip is off your schedule only if someone else picks it up. Got a nice two-day during the week? Likely it will be gone in minutes. A four-day spanning a holiday? Probably won't be picked up at all and you will end up flying it as scheduled.

Yes "they get paid" because they are taking the trip off your schedule and flying it. Yes, you have lost the pay for that trip if someone else takes it, because now it is not on your schedule at all. Of course when you put a trip on the Swapboard as a pickup, that's the entire idea, isn't it?

No you don't have to pick up a trip in return. One time I actually dropped my schedule to zero, with a combination of personal drops (winter time, so reserve coverage was good) and getting rid of trips on the Swapboard. Of course I didn't end the month with zero after scrambling to pick up time, but it was an interesting month to be sure.

Only limit is zero and one end and FAR's at the other. When I was a junior ER FO I was able to drop my domestic trips and pickup European layovers that I could never hold as a lineholder or through PCS.

If you're junior the swapboard is a powerful tool to pick-up trips -- no seniority comes into play and the results are almost instantaneous (no waiting for the PCS runs.)

To add to what Herk said: Once you're done with INDOC/training/OE, the next document you should become intimately familiar with is the Scheduling Reference Handbook (Content Locker.)

No, again. Pilot A wants to swap a Tuesday/ Wednesday trip for a Q trip on Thursday/Friday. The only thing that matters is the reserve coverage for Tuesday/Wednesday. If Tuesday/Wednesday are both positive, it doesn't matter what reserve coverage is for Thursday/Friday. The swap will go through. I've done it. My example of the drop was only to illustrate why the swap would go through.

PWA 23 I. 14: DBMS will convert a denied PD, IVD, or APD request to a qualified personal drop (QPD). A rotation within a QPD request will be available to be awarded via white slip or swap with the pot as if it were open time.