Without conflict pay protection for touching trips (and having to add back above 75 hrs) then what good is line bidding?

 

PBS has the potential to be good in a somewhat perfect world. Knowing the history this company and the types of people who run this place, I can confidently say that PBS wouldn't work in favor of this pilot group. With PBS, we'll need 150 less pilots. Straight from the horse's mouth. After you've been on the property for a few years, you can muster up your own judgment.

 

I also used to be anti PBS! Spent close to 9 years using it at my previous airline. But, once I learned how to use it, the potential blew me away. I'm junior at VX and holding commutable trips with a MINIMUM of 15 days off. It's usually more like 17-18 though. Whatever system we get I'm good with as long as the work rules are in place. That's what we need fight for!

 

So you're saying the PAIRINGS are efficient and commutable. Perhaps your schedule would turn out just as good if you were bidding lines full of high quality pairings, too.

We (VX) have a pilot building our pairings. Who builds them at Alaska?

And I second Shyguy's question: without pay protection for pairings dropped in conflict with pre-assignments, where is the value in line bidding?

 

"The Optimizer" program builds pairings at Alaska.

 

I'll start off by saying this; considering all of the airlines to work for, Alaska is one of the better places to be IMHO. I'm not in bed with management nor am I a chest thumping union gorilla. Every airline is dysfunctional and we have our problems, though not as bad as many out there.
One of the most frustrating things about working at Alaska is the schedule, more specifically the poor pairings and the inability to trade. When we had bulldog style pro-pilot ALPA scheduling reps, the pairing and lines were significantly better. I don't know where it all took a dump but the past few years, our lines and pairing have been in a steep decline in QOL. The company likes to blame the "optimizer" and our union is pretty much worthless. The company definitely has control of the pairing/line building. Guess what PBS would look like?

 

Exactly!

......

 

My understanding of PBS is that pairings will remain the same. Having spoken with several ex Skywest pilots and others who've had PBS, 90%+ of them (at least the ones I've met) do not want PBS, especially knowing this management. This just has been my experience so take it for what it's worth.
PBS can be good if the pilots have control of it (ie. VX, Delta, etc.) but good luck with that here at Alaska. I was told at Skywest, the company can/will force a trip on your line on short/high season months even if you didn't bid it, regardless of seniority. There was a term for this but I can't recall at the moment. At least with line bidding, you know what you are getting. As it stands now, scheduling can only force a trip on your line (bid block holder) if your line drops below the month's minimum guarantee (vacation months & months with trip illegalities). Even in this case, the pilot can choose which trip to pickup after open flying has been awarded.

 

You guys should really look at the PBS language Alaska gave Horizon. It's a copy/paste of Delta's language using Nav-Tech.

 

At VX how is reserve bid? Do you just bid for days off and then get assigned a reserve availability time? The big give with PBS is moving away from reserve lines. At Alaska you bid for a RAP call out and the time remains the same all month.

With A lot of PBS systems you just bid days off and scheduling assigns your call out time as needed. This will reduce premium pay and total number of pilots needed to staff the airline.

At Alaska reserve actually goes more senior and is not that bad to be on.