Originally Posted by
Cruz5350
Don't even begin to worry about that in fact I don't know why they waste time with it when you're going to A brain dump it all in systems and B wont have much seniority for it to make a difference. For the last 6 months I've picked every Captains head on PBS and even flew with one of the main PBS call center guys on the matter and here's what I gather...
1. What works for some people doesn't work for others.
2. Less is more with what you want. Asking for too many specifics with little to no seniority will do nothing for you.
3. Sometimes if you really want something specific for a month don't ask for it and you might be surprised and you'll get it.
4. You'll never get a specific pairing if you don't try for it. I bid in layers 1 and 2 the highest paying and best trips for my lifestyle. Occasionally I've been awarded them because somebody more senior to me either A. didn't ask for them or B. screwed up their bid and weren't able to be awarded them.
5. The most important thing to know is there is no way to master PBS quickly and sometimes when you think you've got it down pat you realize you don't. Once seniority is on your side bidding will become much more easy so for now do your best and take what you get. Plan on it being 4 day's on the 200 that stretch over the weekends.
Noobs: Copy and save this and then refer back when you can bid a line. It will make more sense after you've bid and failed miserably. You'll have plenty of airport sits and crappy overnights to spend learning more about PBS!
- If you end up in a small domicile, bid pairings for the first 5-6 layers, then a layer or two of conservative properties to "catch" you so you don't fall out the bottom of layer 7. Make sure your respect legalities and company buffers. Make you sure you bid each pairing on a specific date...if you just select the pairing with no date, you might end up working when you didn't want to.
- At a large domicile it's harder to bid pairings because there are so many you have to choose from. Use the search feature to narrow down the pairing pool for each layer, and gradually open up the search parameters for each layer. If you want, you can bid properties only for your fisrt few months to get a feel for that, and then start doing pairing. Initially do pairings in the first 3-4 layers, and then properties to backstop yourself.
- Be very, very careful about using pairing properties when bidding specific pairings...this will have massive unintended consequence. Try to bid ONLY specific pairings in a pairing layer. Most line properties are OK to mix with specific pairing bids.
- If you want a certain day off real bad, bid for it layers 1-6, but bid to work that day on layer 7...that way if it turns out that it's impossible (due to seniority or coverage) for you to have the day off, at least you won't fall out the bottom and be at the mercy of the company and all the other bidders.
- Need a certain day off real bad? Try to load up your schedule in days prior with six days of work or as close to 28 hours as you can get. Then you won't be legal to work on your target day.
- If you fall out of layer 7, you can be awarded anything at all which will be whatever nobody else wanted to fly, and the company has to get rid of. Reserves will probably have better trips than a guy who falls out of layer 7.
- Read the online manual. Specifically, DO NOT use any line or pairing property bid without reading the directions first. Many have non-intuitive limitations, will conflict with other property bids, or will invalidate your pairing bids. I've seen super-senior peeps decide to "try out" a property they've never used before and get utterly hosed for an entire month. Also the directions are not written well...if it's not clear to you, ask somebody on the help line or the SAPA forums.
If you don't bid pairings, someone junior to you WILL make out like a bandit at your expense...and I was that person (the bandit) for many years. SKW PBS punishes those who are not tech savvy, computer programming experience will help you understand the myriad possible permutations of logic.