Originally Posted by
unit monster
I'm more than willing to take a shot at line bidding, does anyone want to learn me? How about PM/email me a bid pack followed by the final awards? While we're at it, a copy of your contract?
You have to remember, it's not the line bid itself. It's the work rules that go with the line bid. Just like the ASA PBS is way ahead of CAL's crappy system, the XJT line bid/workrules are way ahead of what ASA had. Looking at bid pack really isn't going to explain that much. Sadly, what would be best is to watch a guy in action during the ILIW/SLIW. I didn't do much trading on this SLIW, primarily because Sked+ is a bit of a pain and I was running out of patience. But two of my friends were complete honey badgers and rocked the crap out it. Took themselves to 17 days off, inceased block, and commutability.
If you want a copy of the XJT contract, it's up on the ALPA website.
The reason ASA folks like PBS so much is because it really has been a huge improvement in our monthly schedules. My line next month has a four day, two three days and a two day. That would have been very rare during line bidding months and would have gone quite senior.
Is there still Charter flying going on? That sounds like a nice gig.
The reason XJT likes the line bid workrules so much is the flexibility to fix your schedule if need be. PBS is about efficiency FIRST. That's just fact, plain and simple. YES, I know that ASA management is having problems seeing those efficiencies. Where a PBS pilot may not get anything on his bid sheet for whatever reason (criteria can't be met, unstacked) there's little recourse due to the reduction in open time. Not a problem under the XJT system.
Charter is done. And yes, it was a nice gig. You can't beat having a ticket back and forth from home, long layovers, not dealing with TSA nearly as much, the different style of flying, the pay overide, etc.
BelowMins, the ASA PBS software is just as good as our line bid system as far as going for max time off and retaining min pay guaranty. It's simply a matter of lining up the bid preferences correctly. That horse is well beaten.