Thanks guys, first time on reserve in about a year.

You just described the 2 days following my Guatemala layovers perfectly.

Looking at the March reasons report, I was given a "coverage award" for a pairing that I had on bid line 37. I had a trip on bid line 8 that conflicted with the coverage award and then that pairing from my line 8 bid went to a junior guy. I'm not clear on what the "coverage award" was and why it was awarded prior to a pairing that was way up my preference list that ultimately got awarded to a junior guy. Out of the country right now or I'd call ALPA. Just hoping to tap the wealth of knowledge on here. Thanks in advance for any insight.

Here's what I know - PBS uses coverage awards when it determines that after the bids are processed, there will be too many unawarded trips. So, reduce the level of unawarded trips, it will assign trips to people prior to working through the bid. It's also called "unstacking" because the "stack" of trips was too high.

So, PBS does try to give you something that you wanted, even if it's on a day that you don't want to work. So it looks through your bid, looks at the trips that were unassigned and tries to match them up. So when the coverage award system worked it's way though it's pile, it had no idea whether or not someone else would get a conflicting trip. It just knew that the trip you were assigned wasn't covered, and you had some interest in it (even at line 37).

Without knowing the specifics, guessing is all I can do--but, my guess is the trip you bid for on line 8 did not satisfy the coverage. Just a conflict with the coverage trip you got doesn't matter for the coverage process; it can only keep you from getting the trip after coverage (as you have discovered the hard way).

Coverage will give you a trip from the "coverage pot"--matched to an AWARD bid you have, if possible, without regard to any restrictive bids (AVOID, PREFER OFF, etc.). In this case, it gave you a trip that matched your line 37 bid. Only then did it run your full bid, with the coverage award essentially acting as a pre-award. With that coverage trip in place, you couldn't get line 8 due to the conflict.

Hypothetical example: your line 8 was for a trip that ran Wed - Fri of a particular week. Coverage was activated for the weekend days at the end of that same week, and all the trips still in the pot started on Fri. You get the coverage trip starting on Fri, and therefore cannot get the W-F trip. Again, pure speculation without knowing your specifics.

Look up coverage award in the gouge. It explains it pretty well.

Thanks for the reply. I talked to a couple of guys here tonight that had pretty much the same explanation that you had. I'm still not getting how I was "stacked" into a trip well below a trip that I bid and then the trip I bid went to a junior bidder. He was "stacked" into the trip I bid as well. So it's a little strange. I guess ALPA has to figure that out, because it makes no sense to me. I'll call tomorrow when I'm back in the states and figure it out, I guess. Thank you very much for the reply and trying to figure it out. I appreciate it.

Thanks Jug. Good explanation.

I'll do that. Thanks for the reference. I hadn't thought to look there. Much appreciated.

The AE bid is closed....where are the results?!?