How do you know it's the only way to get the trip?

I can't tell you how many times I was bidding for a premium trip, and virtually every bidder was either over the cap or on vacation to the point that anyone in-base and under the cap would get it, and a brand new first-year guy comes in and bids it straight while being the only bidder under the cap.

Even worse... a few senior out-of-base premium bidders, and the only local base bid is a probationary FO bidding straight. Talk about a double facepalm. Had he bid it premium, he would have flown it at a premium, not straight. Had it gone to a reserve, he could have simply picked up the phone and called Scheduling and told them he wanted to Extra Fly this particular trip, and boom, now he has it at straight.

You see enough of those, and the double facepalm doesn't even begin to cut it. You start feeling sorry for these guys because someone, somewhere told them to blindly bid straight and pay no attention to the contract or point out how our open time market actually works, or relay to them that they actually have an ace in the hole in Extra Fly if the trip goes to a reserve. But you don't get to do this when you get outbid at straight. Talk about a disservice to our newest pilots! But then again, it's also incumbent on the new pilots to read the contract and familiarize themselves in how to maximize their income and QOL here. You can lead the horse to water...