Yes, your approach has it's benefits, too. In particular it nets you two 30-hours rest periods on the Company's dime - bonus!

Additionally, if you are more senior and you put all your on-call days at the beginning of the month, you won't fly. And then, if any green slips go out later in the month you will be first in line for them. And if they roll off the back of the month, those payback days go into the Payback Bank. It's also a good stategy.

...and true: if your category is well-staffed, you won't fly much, and there won't be many green slips. But they still seem to happen, as everyone seems to shift their off-days to the weekends and holidays, and somehow every friday they seem to get magically short of pilots and toss out a couple of greenslips.


Additionally I might add: Try to get senior in the smallest possible category you can find. Less pilot population means less flexibility for crew scheduling. In other words, in a category with 100 pilots, min manning for the weekend might be 4 pilots, but out of those 4 maybe none of them are available for a 3-day trip. In a 300 pilot category, that might mean 12-15 guys are on call, very likely have 1-day, 2-day, 3-day and 4+-day pilots available

 

If you bid reserve and have any type of seniority in a short staffed category, bid most of your days off in the beginning of the month but do save 4 or so days and bid the end of the moth off. If you get 13 days off, bid 1-9 and the last 4 days of the moth off. That way you can take advantage of any carryover trips that pop up.

Denny

 

Of course, due to our old friend Mr Capped Reserve Days, I'm finding my PB days next to worthless.

 

How do PB days work?

 

1) If you fly a GS on your RES days you get PB days.
2) If there are enough RES days left on your schedule in the month, the PB days start on the RES days immediately after your GS.
2) If there are not enough RES days left in the month they go into a bank (which you can check at the bottom of your timecard.)
4) You can go to iCrew-->PCS-->LEAVE REQUESTS-->PAYBACK DAYS, and use them through the PCS process. Unfortunately they have no more priority than a regular PD so you often run into a CAPPED RES day issue. Otherwise, you can drop a trip with pay equal to the number of PB days. The obvious strategy would be to drop a high-time trip using PB days. If you are on RES the PB days would pay less (since RES days pay less -- 3.75 for instance.) As iFlyer wisely pointed out it's best to save them for use on a REG line.
5) If you can't use them by DEC 31 they are put into your VACA bank which means they have even less value (although I've heard you can still try to use them prior to the new VACA year.)

A wealth of knowledge to be found here --> https://dal.alpa.org/DesktopModules/...d=0&TabId=2593

I really wish they would tell guys about the SRH in INDOC.

 

Generally true, but see next point:

True. Different mechanism, though: you make the drop via normal PCS, then call Crew Scheduling to have them manually place your PB(s) over the day(s) in question.

One big difference, ref the previous point: From 1 Jan - 31 Mar, you can cover an APD with a PB. That's obviously only a one-shot (per year) deal, but could be significant if you are struggling with capped days....

Absolutely a fantastic resource. Either things change from one class to another, or you were full from the firehose , but indoc is where I first heard of the SRH (and the PBS Gouge, the other "must read")....

 

Thanks for the replies guys. Can't wait to start.

 

Just to clarify iflyer's post, there are no "go-to guys". The contract dictates who flies the trip, not CS secret friends lists. NEVER EVER answer the phone. Ever. In a short manned category you will have your pick of the litter when it comes to trips, why fly whatever garbage CS happens to have up on deck. Always watch daily trip coverage in a short manned category, if CS tries pulling some crap (which they will do) then you have a contract to protect you. Nothing like getting paid for somebody else to fly a trip that you should have been awarded .

When CS calls your 1st phone login to icrew and check the daily trip coverage. If GS aren't in high demand then you'll probably take anything. If they are flowing like they were on the 717 this past summer make a decision if you like the trip or not. Then when CS calls your 2nd phone you can pick it up and accept the trip (or just wait an hour for the next call...). Once you pick up the phone you are obligated to take the trip unless you can't make the commute, have child care issues, or have been drinking.

If the trip is >2 hours from sign in they will typically put the trip on your line and you can just accept it in icrew without ever picking up the phone. This can back fire in 2 ways: 1. There are lots of trips available and you need to call them back to tell them what you want. This is a problem because calls to CS can easily go unanswered for 25 minutes. They only have to hold the trip for 10 minutes so the one you want could legally be gone before they pick up. 2. If report is within 2 hours they don't need to give you 10 minutes to reply. This is why I check icrew immediately upon seeing the caller ID for CS. If the trip is good and within 2 hours of report, you have to pick up the phone or it is highly likely the trip will be gone before CS ever picks up your call, and quite often the trip will only be on your line for a minute or two, if that in icrew.

 

Slight tweak...if CS puts a trip on your line, but there are others in Open Time, they have always let me pick the one I want when it's my 'turn'.

 

On the GS template there's a block for "min notification time" or something like that. Leave it blank. I used to put 45 minutes to let them know I was close by, and sometimes trips come up and could be shorter notice, even past show time, but they would pass me because of my restriction. Less restrictive is better. If you're their best option, they'll delay the flight.