Same, same here. Not one preference and to add insult to injury they never gave me more than 2 days off in a row. This makes a swap almost impossible, anytime you wanted to swap and take a day off with it either side, it's illegal, because you NEED two days off every fortnight.
What bothers me even more, is to see many flights i wished for on the swap page, but unable to swap (see above). It's really insulting.
I am also quite senior and checking the buddies receiving my preferred flights, it turns out they are junior and in no better bid group. I suspect this is done on purpose, to get the old guys pi$$ed and opt out. We seem too expensive ....
I wrote to the higher levels, as usual without any substantial result nor intellectual reflection.