At NJ can you guarantee every other weekend off on the 7/7 schedule or do some start on sundays?
Some start on Sundays. Thanks to the new contract, though, no more than 15% of 7/7 lines will start on Sundays as of this coming June.
What determines your starting day of the week? equipment? domicile? airplane?
Domicile is irrelevant. Each airplane has start days assigned to it -- these vary by fleet, and can be changed by the company during the Open Bid period where everyone can shuffle by seniority. (The open bid is June this year, October in subsequent years.)
I'm in the Excel, just as an example. We have Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday starts, and they're on a two week cycle. (So while somebody's starting on a given Tuesday, another pilot has just finished the previous Monday.)
Can this be changed? Is it bid for via seniority? When can you change it?
During the annual open bid, it's strictly by seniority. We have 3 bids a year, every 4 months. -- during the other two bids (closed bids), you can switch lines, but only if there's an opening. If somebody junior to you has a line you want to switch to, that can't happen unless it's an open bid. So if you get a line you like, you'll be on it for the whole year if you want it, until the next open bid, where it's all by seniority again.