Originally Posted by
SMACFUM
Yup, agreed. I've been here just over a year (roughly 60% on the FO side in domicile) and I have never had a Cn or Pn pairing (maybe once for my very first composite line). Every month my award just keeps getting better and better. This latest bid it finished on layer 2, and I got the entire week over New Years off (my #1 goal).
I guess PBS finishing my award on layer 2 is a sign I need to get more picky with my bid
You have to know three things to be successful w/ PBS
1) Know the logic behind how the PBS software works; it's primary goals (award all the flying) and how the software accomplishes it.
2) You have to be realistic with your goals and expectations. This is primarily dependent on the quality of pairings in a given domicile and your relative seniority.
3)Maximize your available pairing pool!!!!!!
I have a friend who is more senior to me in the same domicile, who is constantly ****ed off at his award because he doesn't know how to bid properly. He asks the system for too much. You need to prioritize what you want, and make sacrifices. Also, don't over complicate it, with too many line or pairing properties, it will blow up in your face. Each pairing/line property does specific things, and using them together without know exactly what they do, can backfire severely.
Just a couple things I disagree with in your statement above.
1) Know how the software works. Nobody knows how the hell this software works. You call the PBS helpline and get one answer, you read the documentation and get another answer.
2) Be realistic with your goals and expectations. As long as you don't realistically expect to hold trips that your seniority can hold and your goal is not to expect your seniority matters, then PBS is awesome.
3) Maximize your pairing pool. As long as you just accept whatever PBS wants to give you, then you will get what you want every time!!
This month we decided to change the pairings around. Too many 4 days so we made more 3 days. Awesome right? Everyone wants to work more locals, 2 and 3 day trips. We got more so everyone should be happy right? Except now, the 3 day pairings only pay 15-16 hours and your 4 day trips now pay 20-22. I really don't care about that part. But when you want me to work 90 hours, it means that I hget to have less days off. The simple fact is until you have enough pilots to fly the hours you are picking up, then PBS will blow up, drop off layer 7 and do whatever the hell it wants to do with CN/PN.
I just love the fact that we didn't bother getting anything in our "negotiations" about reserve levels or maximum hours forced on us. We didn't ask for PBS transparency or SAPA involvement in buffers or PBS tweeks. We were told, vote in this package and we will get more flying. Well, we voted in the package and we got more flying. Just because we didn't bother working out the details, doesn't mean we can be ****ed now. If you voted yes, enjoy your profit sharing bonus and all that extra time away from home. We are just getting what we were promised.