Originally Posted by
But seriously
Its not only (or even mostly), about who is better at bidding. PBS will still only give you what your seniority will hold. The biggest difference is likely to be a huge reduction in OT. PBS won’t allow conflicts, so the only OT around will be sick calls, or the occasional Mil leave that gets submitted after bidding closes. QOL has way more to do with the efficiency of the trips. PBS will mostly just be less money in everyone’s pockets.
You have to learn what parameters actually ask PBS to do what you think think you're asking it for. There would be several parameters that would have to do with days off or time off, for example, and you had to use the right ones the right way to actually have a chance of getting what you thought you asked for. So if a more senior person bids for a certain day off improperly, and a more junior person bid for the same day off the right way, the junior guy would end up getting it. But yes, if both bids are done the exact same way then it has to respect seniority. The line bidding is more transparent to the pilots because everyone can see easily that if they didn't get the line they wanted that it went to more senior person and there is no question about if were any errors. PBS also allows the company to do credit pushes and load up everyone's schedules at the low end of the seniority list to keep the stuff that wouldn't have been awarded, out of OT, as you said. Either way, point is, PBS is for the benefit of the company, and not the pilots. If you don't like what you're being awarded now, it will probably get worse with PBS. It's marketed to younger people who haven't used both systems and think it's great to have everything automated, but there is a reason why PBS is a concession. People who have used both would take line bidding.