Originally Posted by
Jimbodawg
Thank you Pedro.
Just so I understand better, if one trades trips, one can get a longer stretch of days off? Or does trip trading have to be day for day (and the 5/4 pattern never changes)? Also can you drop trips?
You can swap anything that is legal, what ever the system will accept you can trade. If the trade would cause some duty or rest violation for either pilot the system rejects it.
You can not drop trips per say, you can put flights for give away, so anyone may take it if they want to, if nobody takes it, you will have to operate it. If you are clever you could trade some flights to have a longer off block, it wont affect your pattern. But it can be hard to find someone who is compatible (with out duty time violoations) and willing to take your flight. The company doesn't care either way, you can give away all your flights in theory, in practice it's just tricky to find someone to take them off you.