Bidding during transition training?
 

I know its been discussed before, but I couldn't find it in my searches. What doe one bid during transition training to maximize pay. Highest pay with or without carryover?

Thanks,
TB

I believe it's highest pay w/out carryover

(...I believe w/carryover is not allowed during training)

Thanks a lot, and Merry Christmas.

Highest pay w/out carryover until RLG, then bid reserve, otherwise you could end up with a line that pays less than RLG.

On the MD next month, low line is 85:00, RLG is 87:24, big enough difference to me to warrant the extra time to sort the lines.

One other important point. In the month you plan to activate, your PAY ONLY bid line days off rules your required days off on any custom line. Bidding max pay should also be evaluated against the number of days off on your line. Food for thought. :)

Highest pay w/out carryover until you get to VTO (average BLG), then highest pay until RLG.

Use FastBid. Sort for highest pay without carryover. Insert VIPS code for any VTO at the BLG average. leave the rest of the lines until you get to RLG. At that point you have to put in the reserve lines. On the last month, make sure you don't bid a carryover reserve line unless you want to have those extra days included in your custom line.

If you use the code for "Highest paying line w/o carryover," you may miss out. That code excludes all lines with-carry over (obviously.) Since you won't get the carry-over credit in the following month while in training, there is no harm in bidding a line with carry-over, as you will be paid the BLG for that line, including the initial month's credit for the carry-over trip.

Let me throw out some numbers for you, using the Jan 08 727 Bidpack as my example. If you sort the lines for Max BLG in Fastbid, you find 2 of the top 5 paying lines have carry-over. Line 53 pays 95:35 with 12:54 of carryover, and is the highest paying line. Line 42 pays 93:02 with 41:58 of carryover. In both cases, you would get paid the BLG (including the January portion of the carry-over trip,) in January and nothing in February for the carryover. If you bid 9980 or "Highest paying line w/o carryover," neither of these lines would be in your bid. A quick check of the bidpack shows that of the top paying 50% (80 lines,) 25 have carry-over and would not show up in a 9980 bid.

IMHO, the best way to bid is to sort for Max BLG using Fastbid or BidX, and bid those lines down to Avg BLG, Then bid "any VTO" or 9952, as for pay only, VTO pays Avg BLG. Then the rest of the lines down to RLG, then "any Reserve" or 9954. After that, bid the rest of the lines, as believe it or not, occasionally, some flying lines pay less than RLG.

That's the "Fdx727pilot" approved method for bidding pay-only, and my $0.02 for the day.

Agree with the above. You want Max BLG and either "Highest Paying Line w/ carryover" or "without" won't do the trick. Since FedEx doesn't give you a code for "Max BLG", Fastbid is the best way to do it. If you don't have fastbid, have a bud run it for you and print it out. Otherwise, a bottle of vino , a bid pack and a pencil is the old way of getting it done.

Also agree with Fdx727pilot. It didn't take long for me to crank out the approved bidding list for the whole class on Friday after the lines were released (builds class unity, get you free beer, etc).

The one thing that was omitted above (but mentioned earlier) is that for the bid month you exit training-- you should be concerned with the number of work days. (See CBA Sec 25.I.2.) Two lines pay the same BLG, but one has 17 days off and the other 15 days off. That's two extra work days-- and your custom line will be built with 15 days off instead of 17. And if you are awarded carryover, they can (and probably will) give you a carryover trip not of your choosing or R-days.

So you should be sorting and bidding for Max Days Off w/o carryover with a secondary sort for Max BLG. That should order the lines with the same number of days off in BLG order. At the bottom, go any VTO and any reserve w/o carryover, since they are all built to min days off anyway.

The only thing worse than working extra for straight time is working extra for free!