I would imagine "line constraints" refers to what is required for the "Global Solution". Meaning that even if you are the top VTO holder, if they need that requested trip to build to a certain credit hour for someone below you, no matter how far below you, tough luck.

The top priority is always the companies priority, build to certain credit hours for everyone. Anything you put down there is merely a "request".

I'm sure someone will straighten me out if I'm wrong.

Secondary lines are suppose to now be built in seniority order. What someone else wants who is junior to you shouldn't have any impact on yours. Especially since they can now use blocks of R-days to plus up a line if the trips you ask for don't quite hit the min BLG limit and there aren't any trips that work. Also, now R-days can go to anyone, not just the junior (which was a restriction under the old system).

Don’t think this is true. My practice gave me one of the reserve blocks and my next 4 preferences were reserve (RB, R24, RA, Reserve) then my line had two 6 hour trips not more reserve. I would have preferred to have extra R days to “plus up” my line.

It shouldn't have any impact on you, until it does. Basically, the SLG should build lines in seniority order, giving people their "best fit" lines in seniority order. But as it gets lower and lower down the list (more and more junior), there may come a point where it can't make someone a legal line with what it has left in the open time pool. In that case, it should work its way up "adjusting" peoples line (giving them something less desirable) in order to free up trips to make more lines.

I think this is what essentially happened to me. The "line constraint" that got me was my number one preference. I wanted the first week of the month off. I think there were so many trips in open time in the first week (due to CIC, etc.), the SLG realized that if it gave me the first week off, there would be too many trips left in the pool that wouldn't be covered. So, it had to assign me a trip that week in order to assure coverage of all the flying.

Without any practical experience with the new system, I can't really comment beyond what I said. What I was referring to was the fact that as a senior secondary line holder under the old system, I was not allowed to have R-days assigned. So, on a 4-week bid month with a max secondary BLG of 81 hours: If I bid a 63 hour trip as my number one choice and there are no smaller trips (at or under 18 CH in this example) to push me over the min guarantee and stay under the max, I wouldn't have been assigned that 63 CH trip. This happened to me several times on the MD in ANC and now on the 777. Even if I was the #1 secondary line holder, I wouldn't get it because they weren't allowed to assign me R-days. That's what I meant by "plus up". Now in that same situation, I would most likely get that trip along with an appropriate amount of R-days.

I think in the scenario you describe, they will just use R-days. If they can't make lines out of what's left in open time, they'll just start creating additional blocks of R-days like they've always done in the past. But, I have no hard data or contractual language to back that up. It's just a semi-educated guess. When they say they are building the secondary lines in seniority order, I think that means exactly what it sounds like. They build #1 and when it's done they move on to #2. Time will tell.

Personally, I don't think we are necessarily seeing EVERY R-day they might plan to use when we look at open time during the view/add and secondary line process. In theory, every single block of R-days that's showing up in OT could get taken during the view/add.
So, at that point, there's no guarantee when they build all the secondary lines that there will be enough trips to go around. If they get to the last guy and they've only got a couple of 6 CH hub turns left, do you really think they're not going to make some more R-day blocks and put them in his secondary line?

Not sure this is what the company will do. My guess is lines that are all R-day or mix with R-day, will not get plussed up to the max BLG. Just enough to make legal. Then again, if the company is short of bodies that month, who knows. And one more option, if you bid a block that is legal within the BLG limits, maybe they will program to award it. But that may depend if a lower seniority needs it as the only way to make it legal. It will probably take a bunch of months to figure out how the SLG is actually programmed.

If a senior secondary line holder's build is going to be affected by what trips or R-days someone junior might "need" to make their line legal, then that doesn't sound like building the secondary lines in seniority order. That sounds like some kind of global system which is what we used to have and that doesn't comply with the very straightforward language in section 25.D.2.b:

"Secondary lines shall be constructed in seniority order during the Secondary Working Window(SWW)...."

As I said though, time will tell.

We will find out when the finals publish. I was assigned one of the blocks of R days that was published and trips for fillers. If they run out of trips and someone junior to me gets filler R days then the system did not honor my seniority and I will file an Insite. My “plus up” should be R days and not trips if that is the case.

I was told that the system will always do what’s in the best interest of the company.