.....yea, about 20 minutes.....test when u show up

 

Short answer for the shadow period is to pack in as much as possible during the bid because it will be dropped and paid. If OE is delayed every trip is dropped and paid until complete.

 

Great to know. I assume this is most beneficial when you have an entire month to shadow bid? In my case I think I finish the third week of the month, so I would shadow bid for the last week and the entire next month, ideally bidding “max credit”?

 

You will be assigned shadow time for the last week of the month and probably for a few days ibto the next month. You want to cram as much time as possible ibto the shadow time. The trip only has to touch the shadow. If you are in a category with 12 day trips you want a 12 day trip in that shadow ect.. If your shadow extends into the following month you want another 12 day trip touching it. If your a domestic pilot you want to try and get two 5 day trips touching that week.

 

In IQ my captain said (and several times in this thread it’s been mentioned) that if you bid a trip (over days you request off in the shadow period) that scheduling will put a trip on those days and say you bid for it even though you requested it off. This runs counter to my understanding that bidding in the shadow period is independent of your training schedule. I mean I understand they want to get your training done in that footprint but I also thought you could request days off in that period and that was a separate entity from your shadow bid in PBS. Just curious. I ended up flying on most of the days I requested off for OE but I smoked my 15 day shadow period bid with max credit and had my best month at delta pay wise.

 

My understanding is that the time you bid in the shadow period is considered as a whole against any IOE time performed in the shadow. You get paid the higher value. Now if they don’t get your IOE done in the shadow then the rules are as you describe for IOE trips outside the shadow. Free advice is not worth much so check with the union.

 

Shadow bidding is solely for pay determination. No other reason, no matter what anyone tells you. You are never awarded shadow trips (look below you on the Wide report and you'll see they either went to someone junior to you or into open time). They were never on your schedule. They were never dropped. PBS is just saying "if not for the shadow designation, here's how your bid would have played out."

OE schedulers know your shadow bid is not relevant to them, only the shadow period itself (that you don't control). It behooves them to get you complete ASAP, as their performance is measured by such metrics. You'll notice and experience (fleet dependent) that your quality of life is of little to no concern for them. For that reason, it would be nice to have IQ and OE golden days in the next contract. That being said, there could be a penalty paid for OE golden days depending on how/if we allowed them to affect shadow bidding.

 

Wow. Info overload for me. I’ll be sure to read up on it did the next bid period. I’m sure the union has a guide for it, or the scheduling reference handbook?

 

That’s what I always thought. My OE requests not working out I assumed just meant that they had no obligation to honor it. Thanks to you and SF for the responses.