Originally Posted by
eagleatr
Bid the day off first, and then put trips after that. You have to remember their PBS system is all about
THEIR preferences, not
YOURS.
With the way they award trips, it doesn't necessarily start on the first day of the month, it could start somewhere in the middle, and then jump around days of the month before going back to the first day of the month. If they need you to fly that day because of other peoples legality issues or being on one of their minimum days off, then you
WILL fly that day, regardless of seniority.
If you end up with a trip on a day you absolutely need off, then do what everyone else does.
Both of you need to learn to bid. Put the day off in most preferred and if it is your number one day you want off put it as number 1. Put everything else in the least preferred in the order you want it and put that as 31 (or 30 if there are 30 days in the month)
Next take your second day you want off and put that as your second preference and in the least preferred put 30 (or 29 if there are 30 days in the month. Ect
I would recommend you take advantage of the company's 1 on 1 payed tutering. If you want the days off and trips you want. It is a pretty easy system once you figure it out. The most important thing to know is if the optimizer goes through the global list and it doesn't have you at enough hours (it awarded you all the days off you asked for) it will go through the list and give you the trips that you bid for in the order you put them if it hasn't given them to someone senior unless it makes you illegal.