Originally Posted by
Sunvox
Believe it or not that trip goes very senior at L-CAL. In fact the snip I took was from the #2 EWR-756-FO, and he's #2 out of 427 EWR-756-FOs!
Looking over the line awards across the L-CAL system it is clear the two groups have some interesting differences. It seems that trips with quick turns, high time lines, and lines with trips grouped back to back are more desired at L-CAL whereas at L-UAL folks prefer longer layovers at the nice destinations and many of the senior line holders prefer minimum block hours.
In JFK for instance there was a time when only the top half of line holders on the 76T could get lines with less than 75 block hours. Most junior folks were forced into lines that were 85+ hours because senior lineholders bid for low time. That was the main reason I transfered to DCA back in 2009. For all of '07 and '08 I was unable to bid a line with less than 88 hours, but in DCA I was senior enough to bid 70 hour months no problem. Anyways, there are no "absolutes" about bidding patterns but in general there seems to be some big differences in bidding style and preferences.
I can back up you impression of the differences between the 2 groups. Yes, most would rather fly many hrs as they can in a short amount of time. I have a command in my PBS bid that says no trips award with a certain amount of time away from base (TAFB)! Talking to some of our FA's they say this is the biggest sticking point for them also. They want to work many hrs in few days and then go home. Whereas, they say UAL FA's would rather have long overnights and few block hrs in a day! Neither one is right or wrong just different!
I also think you will be surprised now that our whole ISL is done the diff. you will see in A/C bidding. I still think you'll see how the CAL guys will stay on smaller A/C for lifestyle reasons. Not the big split that I have heard that was at UAL. Again, not right or wrong just different. Now I just have to figure out how to do the NEW bid!!!
