ShadyMilkman

Any AA guys or gals commuting from Austin, TX?

I'm wondering about the feasibility of commuting as a junior new hire from AUS, and which of the junior bases are least onerous in this case.

Additionally, I'm very used to working long stretches and then having long stretches of time off. I understand there are complicating factors like one-off-in-seven and the like, but is there any ability to bid reserve such that one achieves something akin to a 6 on/6 off or 6 on/5 off? I understand this may be contingent on seniority or working less than typically-desirable dates.

I'm new to the 121 game, so I'm kind of gathering information from other threads and anecdotes in a piecemeal fashion.

Thank you for any and all replies.

-SM

PRS Guitars

See the DTW thread for my commuting philosophy. Obviously DFW would be good for you once you can hold it.

As for 6 on 5 off. Once you are senior enough you can get whatever days off you want on reserve. For me that took 3.5 years based at CLT. The problem is you only get 12 or 13 days off. So you could do 6 on 5 off 6 on 5 off and then you'd have only 2 more days off to play with, so maybe 6 more on 2 off and start over.

Depending on where you are based and what you fly you probably won't get used on every day on call. I worked 12 days in June, 15 in July, and 8 in August for example, YMMV...

ShadyMilkman

Thanks for the great info, PRS.

As I understand it, Dallas is very senior. In the meantime, while one waits to hold DFW, how soon could one hold long call reserve in one of the very junior bases? Is holding long/res a pipe dream for a new hire since so many folks want to bid it anyway?

Thedude

Back in the day, AUS-DFW used to be full of commuters. Not sure what it is nowadays.

PRS Guitars

Just varies by base. The bottom 6 to 9 guys in CLT held a line in Sept, and they are 2017 hires. But that's not normal...

Clint

I wouldn't call DFW very senior - I'm transferring in November after 21 months, and I think that will drop a little.
PBS bidding throws a monkey wrench into figuring out how long it will take to get LC/SC/line due to bidding errors. I just flew with a junior CA who bid for Reserve in all his layers and ended up getting a line.
That said, most junior bases (LGA, MIA, LAX) shouldn't take more than 2-3 months to hold LC if you bid correctly.

PRS Guitars

Did he have all "prefer off" only in his final layer? I bet he didn't and that was the problem, he had a must off on a coverage day for him and PBS crap canned every layer. I'm amazed at the lack of PBS, TTS, & TTOT knowledge of some of the captains I fly with, but do try to help them when I can.

Clint

That's exactly what happened. He started out with all his days off as Must Off and SC preference, then with successive layers he went LC-SC and changed most of the Must Offs to Prefer Offs. But his final layer still had one Must Off that he explained, "Yeah, but I have to have that day off.:
His line gave him a trip on that day
Me: "So how'd that work out?"

ShadyMilkman

Is there a consistent logic to bidding that correctly? I'm reading over the example you gave wherein this captain stepped on a rake, so to speak. It's all new to me.

PRS Guitars

Yes, if you are bidding reserve, your last layer should contain zero "must off" dates. The company sets certain coverage requirements for every day of the month. Example 50 LC and 52 SC required on Saturday 7 Oct. depending on how many guys above you bid that day off will determine if that day is deemed a coverage day for you. If it is deemed a coverage day and you put that day as "must off" the layer will be dropped, it won't even be considered, so...if you have must off requests in every layer and one of them is on a coverage date, PBS will have to move on to. Layer none, which is, it gives you whatever it wants.

when you bid, you do know the coverage requirements, but you don't know how guys senior to you will bid. It's a safe bet that weekends and holidays will be grabbed as days off first. Once you get to a certain seniority, you are pretty safe from coverage days and can get whatever day off you want (which is awesome).

You can look at the coverage requirements from previous bids on the "PBS report". It's located on the APA web sight under PBS/3XP. You can loo at every person and see when the Line holder, Long Call Reserve, and Short Call reserve coverage dates start to kick in. With this info it's pretty easy to predict how you will sit in the future, with the exception of December. The info is under each persons name (not senior people though) it say LH/LC/SC coverage dates.