Originally Posted by
ShyGuy
Can somebody explain this montly bid concept that people keep asking about on the pilot call? Because like the CPs, I don't understand it either.
There has to be a vacancy open in a base in order for someone to be able to bid into that base. What exactly is the idea of a monthly base bid? Forcing the company to create random vacancies in all bases and seats every month? That doesn't sound realistic.
There doesn’t have to be a vacancy for pilots to move out of a base creating openings. It allows the proverbial “base swaps” to happen respecting seniority. Sure there won’t be much movement with no vacancies, but even 5 vacancies creates a cascading effect. A few vacancies in multiple bases and suddenly tons of movement is afforded. Southwest and SkyWest both do it and both companies are significantly larger than Alaska. Sadly the reality is the ship has likely sailed. A diverse fleet makes a monthly bid mostly impossible without having seat locks (which might or might not be a good solution depending on how they’re implemented) but the reality is there’s absolutely no reason why a single-fleet (or even dual fleet like SkyWest) can’t have a monthly position bid.