Heyas Sink,

The Temporary Position system worked on a monthly basis in conjunction with the Permanent Bid system. Each temp bid was good for one bid period.

To give you an idea of the time line:

Permanent Bids closed on the 5th of each month, and were awarded on the 20th. They were effective 3.5 months from the award...an award on January 20th was effective May 1st. That was the day you were FLYING your new position...all trained up and ready to go.

Temporary Bids, on the other hand, closed on the 25th of each month, effective for the bid period after next. That is, you put in a temp bid by January 25th for the March bid month, and the result would be published on the bid list that came out prior to monthly bidding March...around the 5th of February.

Looking one month ahead, the company figured out where the excesses were. You would only be awarded a temp bid if you were in a category of excess...meaning if you left for a month, they didn't need to replace you.

If you were awarded a temp bid (say you were a DTW 320 guy, and got a MSP 320 temp bid)...when you did your monthly bid, you bid in MSP, but AFTER all of the Permanent position holders (to keep it fair for the guys who were in MSP permanently).

While on a temp bid, you got positive space from home, to work, and paid hotels in the temp city. There was also a little bit of extra per diem thrown in.

You could temp from base to base, or from reserve to block (or vice versa). Some months there were no temp bids....sometimes there were quite a few.

Everyone liked it...I never once heard anyone complain about the system, and like using only seniority list instructors in the sim, it was one of the last "good deals".

Nu