For the gray-beards out there, please, please educate the masses of 5-millionaires and 3-millionaires sitting in your right seats about how PBS would negatively impact our quality of life at Purple.

I thought PBS was awesome when I was at the regionals -- it gave me what looked like quite a lot of control over my schedule. If you'd asked me about bringing PBS on property when I was in indoc, I would have been all for it. I'm certain there are guys at other majors/nationals/LCCs/ACMIs who think the same based on their experience.

I was fortunate in initial to be paired up with an upgrading captain who also became my de-facto "sponsor" and explained the Ways Of The Force, and things like how the downsides of PBS were far more substantial than my perceived upsides based on my previous experience. Having never bid a vacation, or bid a line, or bid a VTO, I had no idea how these things worked, nor how the contract language could be used along with a little strategy to get a whole lot of time off and still get paid for it. I was woefully ignorant...and I've been fortunate to fly with numerous Captains who have continued to educate me on how to figure out life at Purple. Now with a sliver of experience under my TSA-approved belt, the answers seem so crystal clear now, but there are a lot who haven't figured it out for themselves yet.

There are going to be a lot of us new guys who will be voting members when the next contract comes around. Please make the effort to exercise good mentorship with us so that we will be smart when it comes to these issues.