Originally Posted by
I like BIG Bus
If everyone’s preferences leave too many trips over a certain section of the month they “unstack” a certain percentage of pilots and force those trips on those pilots during those days. It all depends on the rules and language when it can be done and how much of the pilot group is affected. Could be done every month but mostly on holiday months. Good rules will have it controlling only certain days like 2 days before Christmas to 2 days after and have a separate bid sheet if you happen to be in that percentage. It’s all in the rules and oversight, typically it’s the bottom 35-50% or so that are affected.
Where PBS gets messy is that it will have to build everybody a legal line (or a specific number of folks anyway) Since everybody wants 4th of July off, you would think that it would be the junior guys that would end up working over that time. But, If the junior guys all flew most of their flying in late June then they can't fly in early July. Couple that with being a senior guy with vacation late in July and now maybe the only way that everybody can get a line that the system wants to give a line to is by that senior guy working a 4th of July trip!!!
You have vacation in the second half of the month, a guy junior to you does not. The only line that can be built when it gets to your seniority is one that would have you working during your vacation....Welcome to reserve!!!! Even though that guy junior to you gets a line.
System Constraints are everything when it comes to what you want to pay attention to as the Union talks with the company on PBS. You think that seniority is everything?? In PBS, not so much! Being able to build the "right" number of lines is everything. And the company is going to want that be the criteria with the ultimate power. If it is, then seniority can go out the window in a hurry.
Remember that PBS is a very powerful tool. If it has no limits that protect seniority, then the middle half of the seniority list can have some interesting things happen to them on a month to month basis.