Originally Posted by Fly4hire

Who is they?

The APA was a good system, and allowed for monthly bids, as well as the company to respond more quickly to market conditions. The current 270/365 conversion cycle is simply not responsive enough to adjust for market conditions that can move well within a 6 month cycle. The down side is it allows for position sharpshooting by the company, and if you are near the bottom of any list expect to be bouncing back and forth between requals on any given acft on a sometimes semi-annual basis. The good is that bids come out monthly, albeit smaller, that allows to easily shift between bases, as well as the requirement to be trained 3.5 months from the bid award. Freezes mitigated too much movement, but we also had unlimited reinstatement rights if bumped from a position.

All in all it was some good, some bad, but pilots preferred it over the previous system, similar to the current AE that was abandoned in 98'. It allowed the company to be more nimble both in responding to market conditions as well as metering training loads.