I was curious how satisfied VTO holders are with their November schedules. Did you get what you want? What amount of your requests were honored? How is your commutability? Did any of you get single days off?

I am increasingly concerned about the the lack of control we have in our monthly schedules. As VTO and conversion line holders, we are at the mercy of futures schedulers.

I believe that our next contract needs to have strong provisions regarding line construction of VTO and conversion lines. Seniority needs to be respected when these lines are built.

The ability to drop and move days is almost non existent thus creating a further detriment to our quality of life.

Thank you for reading and your feedback.

 

Non-comutable, untradable unfixable nightmare. I will be bidding reserves next time.

 

I only put in two requests, neither was honored. Oh well. I think everybody doing this every month would be sweet. Bring on PBS. Not!

 

I was awarded a custom line since I just finished upgrade training and was not able to bid. I was activated before the VTO's were built. I got a crappy three day trip and reserve that covers Thanksgiving. Pilots junior to me were given all flying lines. I have already tried to move R days but given insufficient reserves excuse. The days are over a week away from T Day. Have not stood reserve or bid a VTO in over 10 years so now I feel your pain!

 

And the company is arrogant enough to slide PBS across the table?

 

I bid VTO occasionally. And, I rarely don't get what I ask for, unless it was scooped up by the Phase-in conflict folks. But, I'm fairly senior...especially when it comes to VTO.

Having said that...I can't imagine going through that, or anything similar, every month under PBS. PBS is not even a possibility with my vote.

 

I think a while back we started calling them "secondary lines" and got rid of the "VTO" designation, FWIW.

I usually have a similar experience to BB. I get a secondary in the top 5. I bid for specific trips (individually, one per line). After that, I put in days off desired (no more than two blocks) and finish with "commuter line". For Nov I got my second choice because my first choice was taken in the CIC bid.

When I was in MEM and getting a secondary in the bottom 10%, I still had pretty good luck getting what I wanted. However, what I wanted was realistic. It was probably going to be reserve days with an occasional trip. So, I didn't bother with trip specific inputs and just put in the days off I wanted (usually just one block, no more than two). I almost always got what I asked for.

If you have realistic expectations, input criteria based on those realistic expectations and use the .pdf guide to secondary inputs available on the worksheet page, I have found it is possible to get okay results. YMMV

What needs to be fixed with this whole process is the CIC bids need to be complete before secondary inputs are due. We need to be able to input trips that will actually be available when it's time to build the secondaries. My first few choices are almost always gone after the CIC process.

Oh, and no PBS!!

 

Don't worry, with pbs there will not be any cic.

 

If I want days off I bid RSV. The Secondary process has been unreliable for years in ANC. To the point where a common strategy is to request the opposite of what days you want off.

Sad but true.

 

I got what I asked for in November, but was mainly bidding for certain days off. I've been doing secondary lines for most of the last 7 years, there's an occasional bad month, but overall it has been good. You have to bid very simple parameters the further you are from the front of the pack.

But then this is the 727, and there isn't much difference between a good or bad trip at the moment. Most of our flights are about a 1.3 hour flight time and then on to the hotel for a daylight rest time.

Sorry to hear it isn't so good elsewhere, but glad to hear no receptiveness for PBS.

Fly Safe.