Yes, by drop I mean bad day/worse day. And it is easy. Even junior people do it. You just have to know how to bid and how the trading system works. Most people think they do, but don’t really.

 

If it's so easy to drop trips using BDWD that even junior pilots have no problem doing it, then why don't you post the one or two sentence summary on how it's done and what aspect of the trading system that the majority of pilots are wrong about.

 

Just take a look at the results on the big pick. When you see the list of open trips quadruple within 2 trade runs, it’s not because they all did straight drops. I just pulled a few of the open trips in my BES and they were mostly previously held by uber junior. Like 4xxxxx seniority numbers. The key is to not care about what trips you are awarded on your bid. Just the dates. After that it’s just a numbers game, understand how branching works, the limitation that STT places on trades (max 4 out) and how to manipulate all of those in combination to make your schedule as small as you’d like.

Nearly all of the information is in the contract on how BDWD works, but people don’t understand it. You can trade max 16 days into 1 on a NB if the numbers work out, but that is vastly misunderstood.


It will be a sad day when BDWD goes away. Hopefully it’ll be after I’m retired at age 78.

 

It all depends on your BES. I’m 75% as an FO in a large hub on the 73. Since April I have cleared 90–95% of my schedule every month. It’s not EASY. It takes work and requires you to watch the reserve pool very frequently. But it is absolutely doable.

I get awarded all weekend 3/4 days and generally just end up working weekday trips I choose. I leave the weekends open for premium but that’s just my technique. That being said, the CA seat in my base is way overstaffed and this probably wouldn’t work because there is almost no open time. But the notion that you have to be senior to drop your schedule is completely wrong. You just have to work a lot harder to do it when you’re junior. There are several other techniques that make it easier, you’ve just got to find someone that will help you figure it out.

 

What is the current wait for a new hire to get MCO based for FO and later on CA?

 

No one really knows. 2+ years for FO and probably 5+ years for CA. This is totally a rough estimate though

 

According to management there will be no growth in MCO in 2026. There are currently only backfills if someone retires or bids out. That said on the recent vacancy snapshot MCO737 CA is more senior than holding 787 CA somewhere else. But this is just for now, shouldn’t discourage anyone hoping for MCO. But I see it staying a more senior base at least for the left seat.

 

there’s actually a 787CA bidding into MCO on the snapshot.

 

Yup. Based on the current vacancy bid snapshot, MCO 737CA is the most senior seat in the system. You’ll hold WB CA anywhere else before you get in there at current rate. Sub 3000 system seniority.

The REALLY junior guys that snagged a seat when the base opened? They’re going to be on reserve the rest of their lives, literally.

 

Probably. Pretty soon we’ll see CSRs pushing the captain down the jet bridge after his commute from the villages.