Originally Posted by
pilot64golfer
Which is a great system if you are junior. It used to be the senior pilots would grab a summer block and then Christmas.
This CAL way of bidding forces you to pick. You get to choose which one you want, because you can't have both. Chances are if you pick summer, then a bunch of other guys will pick Christmas so when you get around to bidding secondary, all those dates are already taken.
In the old UAL system you could have Christmas and summer vacations, but not anymore.
Its great if you are in the bottom half of your base, which is now why I'm starting to understand why the LUAL group tended to stay senior and not upgrade, and the LCAL group bid up right away.
Now that's going to even out since LUAL pilots aren't getting the advantage of being senior in a seat as much, so might as well upgrade ASAP like the LCAL side traditionally did.
I think the senior guys get their first 2 choices. You can get 2 vacations awarded in the primary cycle. You can get summer and Christmas. You can't get summer, another summer, a third summer, Christmas, Easter, etc.
LUAL had a culture of "everything for the senior and let the junior guys **** off".
I'd rather see 40 guys get at least one summer vacation than 10 guys get 4 summer vacations.
I like the balance of the senior guys getting their first choice, but other guys getting something good too.
(I'm in the top 10% of my seat....so this new system doesn't benefit me, but I still think it's better for the group)