Do you have the flexibility with your reserve schedule to drop/swap in order to break guarantee?
Not so much, in the flexibility department.
You can swap or give away reserve blocks with/to other pilots, but not with the company. You can't break a block up and give part away either, with one exception: if you have a multi-day block, and you fly a pairing leaving you with one day left (e.g. get back on day two of a three day block, or on day three of a four day block), then you can give away the last day. This actually gets done a lot, and often a single day gets picked up by someone living in the domicile, because it's a lot less likely that the company will use a single day, and someone gets paid 6 tfp to stay at home.
The other thing a reserve pilot
can do, is pick up extra flying on your non-reserve days. If you do, this is computed separately, and is over and above your reserve guarantee. However, the computer
assumes block for the unused reserve days on your line (6 hours/day if your block is =< 3 days, and 5 hours/day if >= 4 days), so you won't be able to pick up extra, if it causes a 30-in-7, or 100-hours-in-month violation. This is so you don't pick up and fly a bunch right before a reserve block, and then the company can't use you due to FAA block hour limitations.
Also, for reserve lineholders, the entire month is looked at for guarantee, not individual blocks. That means, if they fly the crap out of you the first two blocks, and then don't use you on the third, you still may not break your guarantee. On the other hand, if a regular lineholder should pick up several reserve blocks from someone, they're accounted individually for overflying or guarantee.
The reality is, that if you have a reserve line, you're usually stuck with it as is. Typically, the only thing you can give away is a single day, as mentioned above. This is especially true in the months where there's a lot of flying to be done, when it's harder to give
anything low-paying away to another pilot; everyone's trying to give away, so they can pick up premium from the company.
A lot of people are unhappy with some parts of how the way the reserve system works (there's a whole chapter in the contract about it, and you should familiarize yourself with the minutia if you're going to be on reserve). No one ever cared about it until the last few years, because no one was ever on reserve for very long before getting a regular line; therefore, it wasn't worth the "negotiating capital" to change it. But now, after that 2-year period of no hiring, and the current "flat growth until 15% ROIC" mantra, the junior guys in each seat are on reserve for a lot longer. These guys are therefore feeling the reserve pain for a lot longer, so now it IS worth the union's effort to change it. In fact, it's one of the three priorities in the current section six negotiations. Hopefully, it will be much improved with the next contract.
Hope that answered your questions!
Bubba