I don’t agree with selling for $1000+, but again what’s wrong with P2P trades? Email people who have what you want! You’ll get at least a couple nibbles who’ll tell you what days they’re willing to part with for (whatever).
So, Eskimo has a different system than we do. We also have PBS and NO conflict bidding.
Since PBS takes in to account your vacation "pre-block" it'll build a schedule around it. Line or Reserve and will sometimes make lineholders out of junior reserves because of left-over flying for the month after the system builds all the lines for the regular lineholders.
Anyhoo... my shop's system is there is a hard-fought over vacation distribution system that generates the weeks available. (in the before times we had very limited desirable vacation periods... think lots of vacation in the 'slow' months... Sept, Oct, Feb. and very little vacation when people actually want to go on vacation... Summer, Spring Break, Winter Holidays.) Our working agreement guarantees a even distribution of vacation periods throughout the year. (With caveats...)
Then you bid... 3 rounds. Two weeks at a time for each round. All the desirable periods are sucked up in the first round. (vs. the old way where senior pilots could bid all their weeks and take all the limited desirable vacation periods) A few random good weeks are left in round 2. And I hope you like Sept. vacation if you have weeks left or extra periods you'd like to buy with your 'sick time' in the 3rd.
There are a whole bunch of other rules we have - and the devil is in the details. For instance you can fly over vacation, you can split it, etc.
The long and the short of it it's all about seniority.
Think of it like sandwiches. 5 pilots, 5 sandwiches.
Seniority is about picking first... you go and pick your sandwich then the 4 other junior dudes pick their sandwich in seniority order.
Being able to use your system of trading, or the Flying Hot Dog system, where the most senior guy goes in and grabs 4 of the 5 sandwiches. Then the last 4 guys get bread, veggies, mayo, and meat. Then... the senior dude says to his buddy, the most junior guy... here... here is a full sandwich, throw your mayo on it. (And even might get another $5 for the trouble.)
That hoses the seniority rights of pilot's 2,3, and 4.
Seniority has to be worth something. And it does. Basically a fair system where the most senior dude picks first. First AC assignment, seat, vacation, trips, etc. It doesn't mean that you get everything and can play favorites so that other pilots can 'jump the line.'
If I was pilot 2, 3, or 4. (And I have been.) I would be pissed. How is a guy junior to me, who can only hold the same crappy weeks that I can hold, suddenly have a sweet 2 week perfect vacation.
I'm passionate about this topic because it was such a point of contention at my shop. And Seniority rights are a big deal. I will never be super-duper-senior. But, I'll be senior enough to be hosed by sketchy pilot behavior.
Wait till you get PBS. We have guys that will stack their whole schedule with EXACTLY the kind of flying that they want. And you wouldn't believe the free-for-all that ensues when a one-time "cartel-like" kind of behavior is multiplied across the whole airline when you can pull individual pairings and create a schedule vs. the lines which will have maybe 60-70% of your desires and a couple of stinkeroos.
Anyhoo, kind of a babbling response.