Originally Posted by
PA Slammer
I appreciate you saying that as politely as you did. Internet chit chat can often be misconstrued.
However, I thought this forum was to share knowledge and not just complain or talk... as a lot of other threads do.
Different philosophies I guess. All of the answers to our questions are in some regulation or rule book somewhere, so I guess that would leave forums for less constructive topics.
My question kind've still stands though; why such a long lag? Everyone's bid is input into a computer. Hit the enter button and see the results. Just trying to understand the why.
Well, headed back to reading my contract. Just trying to balance my time, between learning the jet, CBTs, reserve rules, what not to trust the company with, all my ALPA emails, company emails, etc... I hope the firehose lessens up a bit after year one is over.
I hate titles...
The fact that there is a lag is due to the previously mentioned requirement that an FO can preference to Avoid flying with a specific Captain (or more appropriately captain) and that the Captains bids need to be checked before the FO processing can start.
So, the main reason for the length of the lag is the need for the union and the company to verify that the Captains bids were done correctly. Once the computer spits out the Captain results the company and Union have to "verify" those results before starting the FO processing. Once that verification is complete the computer can take back over.
Why that "lag" is 2 days brings out the finger pointing!
While it is thankfully rare to need it, I will say that having the ability to "Avoid" a specific captain, can be a nice thing to have. There was one file number that was in my standing bid as an avoid when I was an ORD 767 FO.
I will say that if several Captains ask you to put their file number in your bid, it may be a sign!!