Originally Posted by
31wins
NW isn't getting rid of PBS. Most (90%) of the pilots there would never want to go back to hard lines or the "5 minute window".
As long as you have enough control over it (amount of open time after bidding) it a great system. Bidding hard lines is retarded.
It may work great on the 747 at NW, where you only have 100 or so guys in each seat in a domicile, and where you're only flying to 5-10 different cities, and going out on 3-5 day pairings. But for a system like Fedex, the MD-11 in MEM will have over 1000 pilots in each seat, flies to dozens of different cities, and has pairing that vary from one-day out-and-backs, to 15-day international, around-the-world trips.
For a system like that, a preferential bidding system would be an absolute nightmare for the pilots. Talk about giving the company carte blanche to turn the sodimizer loose, PBS would do it.
Also, anyone that thinks a PBS system might work at Fedex, should also look at section 7 of the contract that deals with bidding vacation with a secondary line. PBS would destroy one of the few good deals we still have left in our contract.
PBS is an absolute deal-breaker for me.