Some guy

Fellas,
With the March bid closing fast, this topic came up among my classmates currently going through upgrade...I was told to bid Max BLG with no carry over for next month, after that bid so that all my trips fall during the first part of the month so as to be off for the rest of the month after IOE. Obviously I'm trying to maximize pay and days off after training.

Or should I bid Max BLG with carry over first and then bid lines that deconflict with my C/O the following month while protecting min days off?

How do VTO and reserve lines play into all of this?

Thanks in advance,
SG

CaptainMark

i don't think u can bid max blg with carryover anymore...

fedupbusdriver

Bid max blg without carryover for your first month, and all other months until the last month of training. After IOE they will credit you with any training days that you actually performed, along with your IOE trips, and determine how many more credit hours you owe them, and build your custom line from that info. It doesn't matter what the footprint of your imaginary awarded line was , only the credit hours that you were paid for that month. IE... If you were awarded and paid for a line with 70 credit hrs, and your training and IOE adds up to say 50 hrs, then they are going to squeeze 20 more hrs of work out of you on your custom line as long as there are days of work remaining to do so.

Good luck in training!

SNAFU

Bid max BLG regardless of carryover.

If you get a line with carryover the carryover will drop out and go into your makeup bank.

For that last month when you are going to activate you might want to bid max days off.

Purple F/O

OK, I think I have a handle on what you're asking...and the answers. Here goes.

1. While in training, the C/O portion of any line you get just goes away as if it didn't exist, so no use bidding any line w/carry over in a pay-only month.(you might get to m/u those hours, don't know)

2. Bidding highest paying line has some drawbacks. If you are so junior(within the pay only guys) that your normal line is less than RLG, you'd be better to bid a reserve line or a VTO, which should net you RLG.

3. What days on/off you get in your final month of training has nothing to do with your pay-only award. The number of days worked does, and this is huge. It's a pain in the rear, but in your IOE month bid lines in order of max days off...you have to do that manually. Then, when your custom line gets built for you in your new seat, they are limited to your pay-only line work days(quantity only, not specific days). Any day with a training event, or IOE trip counts as a work day. Subtract those from your pay-only work days and they will build you a custom line with that number of days.

4. Note-if you are not finishing training in a month, please do not bid for max days off, unless it's because it is a high CH line. Some dude screwed me out of a work day or two the month he started training and I finished. It wasn't even a high paying line, WTF?

5. I don't know how pay works when you do the first half of the month as pay-only and second half as an activated crew member. I would guess it would be pro-rated based on # of days worked each, or perhaps by credit hours of your revenue flying post IOE...I'm sure someone knows. I finished at the end of one, so my custom line was for the next month.

Hope I got that right. Good Luck

sparkmo

Sort Max BLG on Fastbid and it only gives Max for the bidmonth.

fdx727pilot

That's one of the bennies of Fastbid, as if you bid "Highest BLG WO carryover" in VIPS, you may miss a very high paying line that has some carryover.

But be sure to insert ANY Secondary at the Avg. RLG point (Secondary lines pay Avg BLG when bid Pay-only,) and Any Rsv at the RLG point, as many lines will be less than Avg. RLG and there are always a few less than RLG.

This was all covered in the "Ask Tony" thread a while back.

fedupbusdriver

The only other consideration to bidding would be if your training doesn't start until the middle of the month, you could bid a line that is back-end loaded and you will get paid you bid line and only work the training schedule to earn that pay. Not sure about if you worked a front-end loaded line, and then went to training in the second half of the month.

Purple F/O

I'm pretty sure you're on the hook for any trip that doesn't get conflicted by the ITU time, plus its 48 hours duty-free buffer.

fedupbusdriver

That is very true, I was just saying that if you were to bid a line that started on the 15th of the month, and your training date was the 16th of the month, you would get paid for your entire line but only work the training days.