Can't you keep it all off the books via swap with friends and invoking a mé·​nage à trois?

Nope PBs have to go through PCS, but a 3 (or more) way would work if everyone knew the seqence and was patient. The odds aren't great for the senior fisherman. A 4 or 5 day trip with a big day 1 would still have to fit on their schedule AND they would have to fly probably 2 or 3 low productivity days and be gone for 72-96 hours flying my trash.

I agree but it's time consuming. This would be a good place for those in the know to find a solution. We also dicussed a FB group or something but you need full participation.

Gotcha...never did PB days. I just remember back during the NWA merger the NW guys did trip parking. Eventually, a new contract tried to limit trip parking due to "seniority abrogation". So a new work-around was created to get around the new rules(stipulated the trip had to go thru PCS before it could come to back to you directly) by inserting a middle man for the "reach around". Never used that either so I might have it wrong too, but worth throwing it out there for peeps trying to sharp-shoot the system.

Those current in the minutia can elucidate.

The process is simple. You have a trip and put in a PB day request to drop the trip using only 1 PB day. Your "friend" (make sure you are also Micrew friends) has a blind WS request in for that exact trip. During the PCS run when it gets to your PB request if coverage is good it will award the drop, or if coverage is bad the trip will show up in open time at a qualfied "Q" trip. On that same run when it gets to your friend's WS request the trip will be in open time either way and they will get awarded the trip (make sure your friend has the WS pickup limit available to pick up the trip). Remember that the steps of coverage loop twice during each PCS run so the seniority of either pilot is irrelevant, although as others have alluded to the more senior the WS pilot is the less chance someone else snags the trip. Once the PCS run completes you can just go to his schedule on micrew and take the trip off his line and onto yours with no input from him. Then you get to put another PB day request in, etc etc. If you know you are going to do say 8 PB day runs, the WS pilot can at one time put in 7 or 8 (depending on who wants the trip at the end of the sequence) separate WS requests. So very little effort on their end. The pilot with the PB days to use must put in a new request after each PCS run.

Lol, I think I coined that phrase on here! As someone who tries to drop their entire line and WS all month, often fairly short notice, I get it and agree 100%. I'll even OOBWS if the it's a DH on either end and/or front end DH that the last flying leg is in my base. I'm just refernecing the OP's (assumed) situation where they're doing the swap game, someone see it, then drops a WS in for that trip, thus stopping the proceess.




The trip never actually shows up in open time, but if someone see the swaps happening they can go put a WS in for that trip number. Or if but some random happnestance, someone has WS in that would trigger that trip, then it's gone. You could always call that person adn see if they'll work with you. Personally if I saw the swaps going back and forth, I'd reach out them and ask if I could have the trip when they're done.

I’m the dim bulb on the string, I know, but I’m not following this piece.

In micrew there is a "friends" section in the top left dropdown menu. You can add anyone in the company (a friend request gets sent to their email and they have to accept the request). Once you are friends when you pull up the friends list there is a "trade" option on the screen. While it will show up for any pilot, you can only actually trade with pilots in your own category. When you select "trade" a popup gives you the option to pickup, drop, or swap with them. Then you can select the trip(s) you want to manipulate. A person can take any trip on their friend's schedule that they are legal for, and doing this requires zero input or confirmation by the other pilot, so choose your micrew friends wisely. A swap using micrew friends shows up as "PSB" on the daily trip coverage.

Oh, ok.. I don’t have any friends, so no wonder I didn’t get it!

All of this is just a work around because staffing is so poor. I've never done it but if coverage is good you can theoretically drop and pick up your own trip in the same PCS run.