Unofficial · last checked Oct 27, 2026 · current PWA
The unofficial iCrew guide
Pick up, drop and move trips after the award, in plain English: where things are in iCrew’s menus, which request to use, the order PCS runs them in, and what iCrew’s messages mean.
Written by a line pilot from use and the PWA. Not affiliated with the company or the union. BidPilot never logs in to iCrew for you and never asks for your iCrew password or PIN.
I want to…
Not written yet
Tell me which one to write next.
- Read a rotationblock and credit, deadheads, rigs, time away from base
- Protect days with golden daysreserve X-days and the training window
- Set reserve-month preferencesyellow slips, short call, “if needed to fly”
- Swap with another pilotthe swap board and swaps with friends
- Pick up premium flyinggreen slips and the double-pay trigger
- Fix menus that seem stuckPIN notices and forms that won’t let you leave
Find it in iCrew
iCrew’s menu names rarely say what’s inside. This is what each one holds, mapped from the menus in October 2026. Titles in mono are what iCrew shows at the top of the screen.
31 screens
Schedules
Your schedule, open time, every PCS request and the swap board.
Bids
Line, golden day, category and vacation bids.
Pay/Hours
The month’s time data, balances, pay and expenses.
Personnel
Qualifications, training and your personnel record.
Pre-Flight
Trip look-ups and recency.
How a PCS run works
Each run works through the requests in this order (PWA 23 E.2). What an earlier step awards is already gone when a later step looks.
- 1Military leavePWA 13 D
- 2IVDPWA 23 I
- 3APDPWA 23 I
- 4PD and X-day movesPWA 23 I, 12 M.8
- 5Recovery slipsPWA 23 J
- 6White slipsPWA 23 P
- 7Silver slipsPWA 23 DD
- 8Swap with the potPWA 23 H
- 9VASPWA 23 EE
IVD: individual vacation day. APD: authorized personal drop. PD: personal drop. VAS: voluntary airport standby.
Runs start no earlier than 0700, 1200, 1700 and 2200 Eastern (23 B.2). For next month’s schedule, PCS starts at 0700 Eastern on the 20th and then runs at every run time.
- One run can do two things for you. Military leave goes first, so a white slip later in the same run can fill days the leave freed up.
- White slips pick before swaps. Within a run, white slips are processed before swaps with the pot, so a white slip can take the open trip your swap listed, and days a swap frees aren’t open to white slips until the next run.
- Close in, it is a person, not the run. For trips that report the next day or the day after, part of the work moves to Crew Scheduling by hand (23 E.3). The contract’s own example: to swap a trip that reports at 1400 on the 12th without next-day flying, enter it by the 2200 Eastern run on the 10th (23 E.5).
Which request to use
Six requests do most of the work after the award. The coverage test is the reserve check that can refuse a drop or a swap.
- What it does
- Adds an open-time trip to your line
- Runs
- 6th of 9
- Coverage test
- None
- Limit
- Projected credit can’t pass ALV + 15
- Pay
- Pay and credit
- What it does
- Trades a trip on your line for open time
- Runs
- 8th of 9
- Coverage test
- Yes: compares the days you drop with the days you add
- Limit
- No ALV + 15 cap; block limit applies
- Pay
- Follows the new trips; a net loss lowers your guarantee
- What it does
- Trades or gives a trip to another pilot
- Runs
- Outside the run, first come, first served
- Coverage test
- None
- Limit
- No ALV + 15 cap
- Pay
- Follows the new trips
- What it does
- Drops a trip
- Runs
- 3rd of 9
- Coverage test
- Reserves at least a quarter of the requirement
- Limit
- One a year: one trip, or up to 4 days
- Pay
- Unpaid unless you use bank hours
- What it does
- Drops a trip
- Runs
- 4th of 9
- Coverage test
- More reserves than required, every day
- Limit
- None
- Pay
- Unpaid unless you use bank hours
- What it does
- Drops every trip that overlaps the leave
- Runs
- 1st of 9
- Coverage test
- None; it can’t be denied
- Limit
- None
- Pay
- Unpaid by the airline
Pick up a trip
White slip · runs 6th of 9 · PWA 23 P, 23 E.2, 23 I.12 · checked Oct 27, 2026 · filed live
Where in iCrew
- Find the trip
- Schedules, then Open Time Menu, then Open Time
A white slip asks for a trip out of open time. You list the trips or dates you would take as numbered preferences (23 P.2), and each run offers open time to the category’s white slips in seniority order.
An award adds the trip’s pay and credit to your line, up to a cap: a white slip can’t push your projected credit past ALV plus 15 hours. In a category with a limited mix of trips, the bid package can set a different number in place of the 15 (23 P.5).
Good to know
- A white slip stays live until it is filled, its time frame runs out, or you withdraw it (23 P.4). The form’s “award only one” box stops the rest of your list once one preference is awarded.
- If the trip conflicts with something next month, the form asks whether that may be dropped. Answer yes, and a conflicting trip next month comes off your line with no pay protection: your projection and guarantee drop by its credit (23 P.5).
- A white slip awarded in a run has to be flown whether you acknowledge it or not, and nobody calls to tell you (23 P.8).
- You can’t be awarded a trip on a day that shows an IVD or APD on your schedule (23 I.12).
Messages you may see
Move a trip to other days
Swap with the pot · runs 8th of 9 · PWA 23 H, 23 V, 23 F, 4 B.3 · checked Oct 27, 2026 · filed live
Where in iCrew
- Check the reserves
- Schedules, then Open Time Menu, then Display Pilot Reserve Levels
A swap with the pot gives a trip on your line back to open time and takes open-time trips in its place, in one request. You name the trip to drop and list the trips you would take, in order. File it at least a day before the earliest trip it touches (23 H.2).
It is granted when reserves available outnumber reserves required on the days you drop (23 V.3). If they don’t, a formula decides: add up how short of reserves the days you give up are, and how short the days you take on are. The swap passes when the days you give up are less short (23 V.5). A tie fails.
Good to know
- Days your old and new trips share don’t count in the test, so a same-days swap, such as a later report, has nothing to test (23 V.1).
- There is no ALV plus 15 cap on a swap; the block-hour limit still applies (23 H.5). If the new trips are worth less than the old one, your line guarantee drops by the difference (4 B.3).
- Around the holidays the test is stricter and runs day by day. In the Thanksgiving and Christmas windows, a swap fails if any day you drop is at or below the reserve requirement (23 V.5).
- The swap board is the pilot-to-pilot alternative: trades go through first come, first served, outside the PCS run, with no reserve test (23 F).
Messages you may see
Drop a trip and keep the pay
APD or PD, paid from your banks · runs 3rd of 9 · PWA 23 I, 23 V.6, 12 N, 23 S.16 · checked Oct 28, 2026 · contract text only
Where in iCrew
- File the drop
- Schedules, then PCS, then Leave Requests
- Get it paid
- Pay/Hours, then Bank
Two drops run in PCS: the APD, 3rd in the run, and the PD, 4th. Neither pays for the trip by itself, and your line guarantee goes down by the trip’s credit (23 I.21).
You can buy the pay and credit back from your banks. Vacation bank hours pay the trip’s scheduled value, up to your balance; a full service bank withdrawal covers up to the lesser of ALV plus 5 or 82 hours, minus the credit you already have (23 I.19).
Good to know
- An APD is easier to get. It needs reserves available of at least a quarter of reserves required (23 I.10); a PD needs more reserves available than required on every day of the trip (23 V.6).
- You get one APD a year, counted from the bid period of your date-of-hire anniversary. It drops one trip of any length or up to 4 days in a row, and it can be refused from 2 days before to 1 day after nine listed holidays (23 I.10).
- A refused PD or APD becomes a qualified personal drop: the trip is offered to other pilots through white slips and swaps. If nobody takes it by 48 hours before report, you fly it (23 I.15).
- The full service bank can lend up to 20 hours in a month even with nothing banked (12 N). Payback days are a separate route: days off owed when a reserve month’s X-days were interrupted, used by agreement with Crew Scheduling or added to vacation (23 S.16).
Take military leave
Military leave · runs 1st of 9 · PWA 13 D, 23 E.2, 23 B.1, 4 B.3 · checked Oct 27, 2026 · filed live
Where in iCrew
Military leave runs first in every PCS run, and the company can’t refuse it: the PWA grants unpaid military leave in line with the law (13 D.1). Filed far enough ahead, you enter it yourself and iCrew awards it on the spot.
The airline doesn’t pay it. In iCrew, a trip that overlaps the leave comes off your line whole, and your line guarantee goes down by the credit dropped (4 B.3).
Good to know
- Company procedure, not the PWA: self-file at least 8 days before the leave starts. Inside that, it goes through the Chief Pilot’s Office, and so does a cancellation.
- Already know about duty next month? Tell Crew Scheduling before 1800 Eastern on the 11th (23 B.1).
- Posting the leave ends any trade pending on that trip, so trade first if you want to keep part of it.
- On the leave-request menu, pick the military-leave type before pressing anything else.
Messages you may see
Check what I got
Awards and the month’s totals · PWA 23 E.4, 23 F.3, 23 P.8 · checked Oct 27, 2026 · read on screen
Where in iCrew
- Acknowledge
- Schedules, then Future Schedule
- The month’s numbers
- Pay/Hours, then Bank
Checking is your job. For trips you asked for in PCS or traded on the swap board, the contract makes you responsible for finding out whether you got them and for acknowledging the award, and Crew Scheduling doesn’t have to tell you (23 E.4, 23 F.3).
A white slip awarded in a run has to be flown whether you acknowledge it or not (23 P.8). iCrew lists new awards first when you open your future schedule and asks for your 4-digit PIN to acknowledge them.
Good to know
- Filed requests drop off their lists once they’re awarded or used, so an empty list isn’t a lost request. Check the schedule.
- On the month’s time data, block counts only the legs you fly; deadheads aren’t block.
- Pay is credit plus “pay only” time: rigs and adders that pay without adding credit.
- The same display shows whether you still have an APD available, your IVD days, and your payback days.
Messages you may see
What iCrew’s messages mean
iCrew answers on the line just above its menu bar. Type or paste part of what it said.
17 messages
Fix the form
MUST BE BLANK OR 'X'
A field on the form you are on takes only an X or nothing. iCrew checks that form every time you try to leave it, menu clicks included, so every click lands back on the same form.
What to do: Fix the flagged field. If you can’t find it, log off iCrew and back in; that clears the form.
Seen Oct 2026
Every menu opens the same notice
After you log in, iCrew can queue notices, such as training reminders, that need your PIN. While one is waiting, every menu shows the notice instead of the screen you asked for.
What to do: Read it and clear it with your PIN. The menus work again once every waiting notice is cleared.
Seen Oct 2026 · Check what I got
OPTION A MUST BE USED FOR MILITARY LEAVE
On the leave-request menu, the leave type you pick decides which buttons work.
What to do: Select the military-leave option first, then the button you wanted.
Seen Oct 2026 · Take military leave
ENTER 'Y' OR 'N' FOR NEXT BID PERIOD DROP OK
The white-slip form has a required yes-or-no: if this trip conflicts with something next month, may that be dropped?
What to do: Answer Y or N, then save again.
Seen Oct 2026 · Pick up a trip
MUST ENTER BID PERIOD
The screen needs a bid period before it can show or save anything.
What to do: Set the bid period on the menu screen first; the screens under it use the one you set there.
Seen Oct 2026
INVALID BID PERIOD FOR THIS OPTION
This option only works for some months. Seen on the expense displays for a month not flown yet.
What to do: Pick a month the option covers, usually the current or a past one.
Seen Oct 2026
CURSOR MUST BE PLACED ON VALID AIRPORT
In some lists you choose a row by putting the cursor in it, not by clicking a button.
What to do: Click into the row so the cursor sits there, then press the action again.
Seen Oct 2026
It worked
SLIP REQUEST HAS BEEN UPDATED
Your slip request saved. It isn’t an award yet: it waits for the next PCS run.
What to do: Check after the run, and acknowledge anything you were awarded.
Seen Oct 2026 · Pick up a trip
Military leave has been awarded
Done. Self-filed military leave is awarded at once, without waiting for a run.
What to do: Check your schedule: any trip that overlapped the leave is off your line.
Seen Oct 2026 · Take military leave
enter your 4-digit PIN to acknowledge
You have a new award waiting. Your future schedule lists it first.
What to do: Check the dates and times, then enter your PIN. Acknowledging is your job (23 E.4.a).
Seen Oct 2026 · Check what I got
Nothing there
NO DATA FOUND
Nothing is on file for what you asked, such as a reserve open-time list with nothing posted.
What to do: Not an error. Try other dates or check back later.
Seen Oct 2026
Doesn’t apply to you
MUST BE RES AT LEAST ONE DAY
You opened a reserve-only screen in a month when you hold a line. These screens work only in a month where you are on reserve at least one day.
What to do: Nothing to fix. Use the line-holder requests instead.
Seen Oct 2026
OPTION AVAILABLE TO CAPTAIN'S ONLY
The option is for captains.
What to do: Nothing to fix.
Seen Oct 2026
MUST BE INSTRUCTOR
The option is for instructors.
What to do: Nothing to fix.
Seen Oct 2026
OPTION 'E' APPLIES TO FORMER NWA PILOTS ONLY
A sick-bank option that applies only to pilots who came from Northwest.
What to do: Nothing to fix.
Seen Oct 2026
INVALID OPTION
That menu choice doesn’t apply to you right now. Seen on the virtual base and temporary duty bids when none are posted for the category.
What to do: Nothing to fix.
Seen Oct 2026
Seen one that isn’t here? Send it to me. Leave out your name and employee number.
About this guide
It’s unofficial. I wrote it from using iCrew and from the PWA and the Scheduling Reference Handbook. It isn’t the company’s or the union’s guidance, and where it and the PWA disagree, the PWA wins.
Every section says when it was last checked and how: filed live (done in iCrew), read on screen (looked at in iCrew, not filed), or contract text only (from the PWA, not yet tried).
The PWA becomes amendable in December 2026. A new agreement means every section gets rechecked and re-dated.
Something out of date or wrong? Send me a correction. Leave out your name and employee number.