TwoDogs

Strip appreciate the truly informative post. A follow up on a couple of things:

If I understand things it appears that a line holder can drop lines and does not have to make them up, but that is still driven by the number of reserves that are available to cover that trip, specifically, a pilot attempts to drop a trip, but the number of reserves available are low so it is not allowed, correct? Along those same lines how far out is next months schedule finalized so that you can try to drop trips?

I think it would be great to drop almost all of your trips in the summer and pick up some local pros with the unit to just to keep the lights running, thanks for the insight

StripAlert

Sounds like you've got a handle on it.

Generally the schedule is official on the 17th, and PCS (Pilot Change Schedule, where you interact with scheduling) begins running at 1800E on the 18th, then daily at 0700, 1200, and 1800E. Depending on your category, you might be able to sneak a peek at your schedule a day or two earlier (bids close on the 12th, and then PBS runs), but it is subject to change until it gets into DBMS/eCrew. Once it's in eCrew, you can begin swapping with other pilots immediately, but any slip requests or drops that you put in with scheduling won't be considered until the first PCS run at 1800E the 18th. (Pilot-to-pilot swaps take effect immediately, but requests with scheduling are only considered during those three daily PCS runs.)

Only problem is that summer is when Delta is tight on pilots, so you'll have a harder time dropping or moving trips with scheduling through PCS, because reserves will be low. You can still try to give trips to other pilots directly (or hope for a Qualified Drop like Herkflyr talked about), but I imagine it could end up that all the lineholders are already flying max time and can't pick up your trip even if they wanted to--or are holding out for green slips--in which case you're stuck.