POtt3r
I anticipate being junior on my fleet for quite some time, and as such don't expect to have a huge amount of control over what I do. I was/am hoping to have a chance at influencing my days off though,
In the interest of managing expectations I'll be brutally honest and say that IMHO even if we stick with Bidline you'll struggle as a Blindline holder to do much influencing of days off, other than perhaps being able to swop after roster publication, if EASA regs allow it. It's been a standing joke for years that pre-ops ("rostering") put Blindline holders preferences forms unread straight into the bin. Might be unfair but it often appears that way.
If you're destined for the 744 they do at least have a seeded trip on their Blindline's so after Stage 1 publication you'll have a trip and associated days off on the line prior to the rest of the line build.... but you have to have the senority in the first place to get the Blindline that gives you the days off you want. The only other option is to bid for a reserve line - that has a block of fixed days off at the start that might be a "fit" with something you need to do...other than that
I have no idea whether there will be any real improvement in control of days off for the junior pilots if we go to JSS....