Originally Posted by Herkflyr

The CQ golden days are a holdover from the pre-PBS sytem that we used for scheduling of CQ. (As an aside, our current system is vastly better, because now you can actually bid for CQ with specific patterns, Avoids and Awards, etc. Prior to adopting this system, crew resources could assign any training pattern, any time they wished...EXCEPT for the five CQ golden days.)

Once we adopted the PBS module for CQ bidding, the whole golden day concept became less important--but for some it is still a valuable tool.

However, I agree with ALPA's stance, which is: even though CQ golden days are not as important as they once were, they are an existing beneficial contractual provision, so we might as well keep them.

Please refer to the bid award timeline (available in every bid package every month) to see the following:

Before the 21st day of the month that is two months prior to the bid
period in which a pilot may be scheduled for CQ:

Pilot designates CQ Golden Day preferences...

If you aren't already signed up for ALPA text alerts, I highly recommend it. You'll get a text message reminding you of upcoming deadlines throughout the bidding process.

And last, if you forget to bid CQ golden days, it shouldn't be that big of a deal. Just make sure that you don't forget to bid for CQ via PBS when the time comes!

Not too long-winded I hope?

Originally Posted by TED74

It seems that you can only request one block of days from 1 to 5 days long. If this is a bid and you don't get what you request, what happens? Do they put five days somewhere else? Do you get none? Weird that you can't fit any alternatives to your primary request. Or maybe I misunderstand how it works. Presumably a whole category can't be awarded golden days not to train over Christmas?

Originally Posted by sailingfun

Your Golden days must be in well in advance. It is not a request and must be honored. That is the reason for putting them in so soon. When they build the CQ patterns they look at the Golden days. If every pilot in his training window bids 25-30 Dec off there will be no posted patterns those days. All the patterns will be filled. This means failure to bid Golden days can be a big mistake. If you are the only one without Golden days 25 to 30 Dec and there is a 25-27 Dec pattern you are getting it regardless of your seniority or actual training bids! Always bid Golden days in a Holiday month.
In addition you can’t be awarded training over your Golden days even if you bid for it. If a perfect BB training pattern shows up on 5 to 7 Jan and you put Gokden days 1 to 5 Jan you can’t be awarded it regardless of how you bid. That is why you have the option to use 1 to 5 days. If you want New Years off but don’t care about anything after the 2nd best to use only 2 days on 1 and 2 Jan.

Originally Posted by GogglesPisano

So if you neglect to even enter a CQ bid, will PBS honor your days off request in your monthly/default bid when assigning CQ?

Or are they 2 completely different animals?

Originally Posted by GogglesPisano

So if you neglect to even enter a CQ bid, will PBS honor your days off request in your monthly/default bid when assigning CQ?

Or are they 2 completely different animals?

Originally Posted by full of luv

My understanding is the "golden days" bid in Icrew is binding, but it only protects up to 5 days.

On top of that you can go into PBS and input a "training bid" which you can ask for whatever you want, ie train/don't train, days to avoid, periods to avoid. Of course the PBS bid seems almost purely advisory although when I use it I seem to get weekends off which was my main goal anyway. You can use PBS to request or avoid all sorts of things in your training bid.

Originally Posted by Han Solo

Thanks to all the replies, I was able to bid for my December golden days. I expect I will get them as XX days on RES since they are nowhere near the holidays, I scheduled my HPDE figuring early to mid December would be easy to get my requested days off. Thanks for this PBS tip as well, I would LOVE to train as close to the holidays as possible since I’m guaranteed a trip if I’m not in the sim.

Originally Posted by sailingfun

Just to be clear, you don’t bid for Golden days. They are yours to place where you want and you can’t train over Golden days period.