Originally Posted by Roadkill (Post 1775077)

As guys above me said, PBS does NOT ignore seniority, not even in coverage. HOWEVER... it ALSO does not ignore stupidity! Whenever someone senior claims that PBS ignored their seniority and gave something to a junior guy, you're seeing an example of someone who either didn't understand the program or didn't take the time to put in a bid protecting them from what happened.

The rules and algorithm for how PBS works and what all the bidding options are, are published and anyone who wants to take the time to read/understand/bid can take advantage of them. If someone doesn't want to put in the time and uses a bid of "Award Trips" (extreme example) then of course when a junior guy gets better trips than them it would look to this stupid fellow that his seniority wasn't honored.


If you search on my name for posts and "coverage" and go back a month, you'll find a long post I made detailing how the coverage algorithm really works and techniques to make it work for you.
RK

Originally Posted by Herkflyr (Post 1775110)

(Referencing the "Minutes Under" on your rotation printout)...Which is stupid beyond measure. That "MU" only means anything if we block out exactly on time, taxi out for the exact flight planned estimated taxi time, and the enroute time is also exactly as flight planned.

I actually emailed someone somewhere about why the software did that (it did not always do so). After all, prior to a leg departing I--and more importantly, the passengers--only care about when the scheduled arrival is as advertised by DAL. After the leg is completed then yes, the MU is somewhat nice information to have, from a contractual and pay perspective.

I got some answer like "we'll fix it someday." I am not holding my breath--of course it is probably also not important enough to waste heartbeats over.

Originally Posted by forgot to bid (Post 1775104)

I went back and looked at last years seniority list and that showed 122 retirements for 2014. Compare it to the end of 2014 and the seniority list lost 254 (including Dec retirements).

So if that 2x actual vs scheduled continues then the 175 2015 retirements could result in 350 leaving and so on.

Originally Posted by Herkflyr (Post 1775110)

(Referencing the "Minutes Under" on your rotation printout)...Which is stupid beyond measure. That "MU" only means anything if we block out exactly on time, taxi out for the exact flight planned estimated taxi time, and the enroute time is also exactly as flight planned.

I actually emailed someone somewhere about why the software did that (it did not always do so). After all, prior to a leg departing I--and more importantly, the passengers--only care about when the scheduled arrival is as advertised by DAL. After the leg is completed then yes, the MU is somewhat nice information to have, from a contractual and pay perspective.

I got some answer like "we'll fix it someday." I am not holding my breath--of course it is probably also not important enough to waste heartbeats over.

Originally Posted by scambo1 (Post 1775120)

Eggzackly!

PBS is a machine and thinks like a machine. Bid what you don't want - or what you want to avoid the most- first. Then when you bid everything you do want, bid what you want the most first in descending order. If you are junior, keep your bid simple.

The machine tries to give you everything you asked for in seniority order and when it goes into denial mode, it will deny your preferences in the reverse of how you bid based on your category position.

This is simplified, but generally correct and difficult to convey in a couple paragraphs.

Originally Posted by pb4ufly (Post 1775128)

I like the way you think; however, some of the 254 in 2014 were planned to retire in 2015 (part of the 175). So 2x is unfortunately a rob Peter to pay Paul scenario.

Originally Posted by forgot to bid (Post 1775104)

I went back and looked at last years seniority list and that showed 122 retirements for 2014. Compare it to the end of 2014 and the seniority list lost 254 (including Dec retirements).

So if that 2x actual vs scheduled continues then the 175 2015 retirements could result in 350 leaving and so on.

Originally Posted by scambo1 (Post 1775124)

From a pilots perspective, minutes under can be useful. In October, I swapped trips at the end of the month. Together, they were worth 98.8 hours. The 2 trips gave me a look back on the 13th of nov of 98.8. I put all my reserve days from 1-13 nov, followed by x days and vacation.

Actually flying the trips, we were MU on every leg and at the end of the month, my 98.8 was actually 96.3. That actually made me useable for something. Fortunately, when I was on my on call days in nov, I called crew scheduling and asked them not to put me on shortcall because of my look back and they complied...with a note on the bottom of my schedule. Sweet. Moral of the story, MU is useful.

Originally Posted by MikeF16 (Post 1775141)

Good point. Of course sooner is still better if the total will be the same anyway. More like robbing Peter, collecting interest, and then paying Paul.