Originally Posted by
Longhornmaniac8
One thing they spend a lot of time on during the first few days of Indoc is how to bid. The 3 hours they give to that topic is longer than everything else, I believe. With that said, it's obviously nowhere near enough.
Knowing how to build a schedule in Flica can make or break one's QOL, pay, etc.
I was hoping that some selfless individuals could help those of us either new to it or bad at it with some pointers, tips, tricks, etc. that have helped you along the way.
Naturally, different people have different motivations, whether it's to maximize credit, maximize days off, hold a line as quickly as possible, create commutable pairings, and so on. Within the confines of our work rules and contract, it certainly seems there are ways to maximize your schedule for whatever end goal you have, but no one really talks about how to go about doing that.
Anyone want to throw some stuff out there for discussion?
I'll tell you that holding a line quicker is more to do with your position on the seniority list and base you're bidding in than bidding a schedule every month. Outside of that, my mentor taught me a lot of bidding tricks, cans, and cannots. There just isn't enough time in indoc to turn everyone into bidding wizards. Given that you're likely at the bottom of the pack bidding-wise, read and understand the contract especially when it comes to bidding reserve. You can select reserve preferences every month like what days you want off, what type of reserve you want (AM/PM short call, or long call), waiving certain contractual obligations like 3 day off blocks, and waiving composite reserve rules if all that is important to you. This can be important if you would rather be on a lot in a row, and off for longer blocks like I do. If you learn how to bid your reserve well, you'll find the schedule is as good as it gets for a reserve, and you'll usually get every preference you want because we're so fat on reserves right now and a lot of people don't spend the time to learn how to bid reserve well. Reserve pref bidding is a separate folder from line bidding. By the time you get off reserve, you'll probably have a pretty good grasp about how to bid a schedule well enough. It just takes practice, disappointment, and small victories.