Originally Posted by zippinbye

Relatively early in my tenure with Northwest (now Delta via merger), we converted to a computerized preferential bid system. Our current system is Navtech PBS. Including previous air carriers, I have about ten years of experience with classic line-bid methods and 16 years in the PBS environment. I have been in the bottom 10 percent and upper ten percent of seniority for particular positions, and in between. Everything ranging from six to eight short haul legs per day, up to 12 day-plus international flying. PBS has been good to me, and I would never go back, given a choice.

Decoupling individual trip pairings from company-envisioned combinations allows tremendous flexibility to pilots. I am very confident that satisfactory monthly schedules trickle much further down the seniority list with PBS. I could go into some detail as to why, but that would subvert my intended brevity. Ask for more, and I'll produce such in a later post.

Here's the downside, at least for some carriers here in the U.S. that have "vacation conflict drops." That's what I'll call it - terms vary. Simply put, previously awarded vacations are prepopulated on a monthly schedule. When pilots are awarded a line, trips that touch the vacation are automatically dropped, and pay-protected. In some cases, it's allowable to retain those pay guarantees and pick up additional flying on the same days. Needless to say, maximum conflict is the goal for pilots. It's quite conceivable to have a week of vacation that touches a trip on both ends, netting the better part, if not all, of the month off. Or the month becomes extremely lucrative, or a bit of both. It's possible to plan an actual vacation with your family, and pick up bonus flying. All adding up to a month with less work days than normal, and a ton (or tonne if you will!) of extra pay. Extrapolate that to four, five or six weeks of vacation all in separate months, and the impact is enormous.

In my estimation, that issue alone is why pilot groups without PBS staunchly resist it. An inevitable condition of PBS introduction is a dismissal of the vacation conflict rule. The computer is programmed to award trips that will not encroach on the vacation, or pilots can choose to "slide" the vacation in a fashion that allows their most preferred trips to be awarded. But I must say they are sacrificing significant quality of life enhancements during non-vacation months. A number of carriers have a liberal swap, add and trade system that can offset that consideration quite nicely.

PBS certainly makes a company more efficient and allows a particular amount of annual block hour flying to be covered with fewer pilots. In the most simplistic sense, it's a 100% win for the air carriers. And it's a double edge sword for the pilots, depending on work/vacation rules that exist when a conversion to PBS is considered. If BA does not have vacation conflict drops, the main negative is a smaller seniority list to do the same amount of flying. At least temporarily a downside for the very junior and yet-to-be hired. But I'd venture a guess that the monthly pleasures of PBS schedule-enhancement would filter down to rather junior line holders. And there are even some niceties for reserve pilots as well.

Ponder it carefully. There are pros and cons to PBS. Typically there is no going back to line bidding, although most agreements contain an escape clause (at least temporary) if bad things happen during integration. Best of luck in securing a a bid system that improves the quality of life for your pilot group.