Originally Posted by
Wilbur Wright
I like the idea, but I do see two downsides.
1) Someone junior swaps out with someone senior. Result is pilots in between the two move down a number in the category.
2) A pilot who sees someone junior to him get a swap to a category he wants feels like his seniority has been abrogated.
Solution: Have a base swap board. All requested swaps must stay up for 30 days to give all pilots a chance to bid. After a swap, for bidding purposes a pilot must use the junior of either his seniority or of the pilot's seniority he is swapping with until he can hold that category through the normal AE process.
This way, no other pilot is "harmed" and two pilots are happier. Although one problem would be the IT programming for bidding using a different seniority number.
I don't understand why bidding preferences in everyone's bid couldn't protect them from being "harmed". In my real world scenario there is a guy 4 people below me that was MD'd to LAX. I would have VD'd if I had known that I was going to lose 17% in the last bid, and perhaps that MD would want to come back to SLC.
I just don't understand why the system isn't sophisticated enough to reshuffle everyone's preferences when they do it every month with line bidding. At least on same equipment where there is no training event.