busdriver12

Unless they are allowing you far more VTO requests, that may not help anyone. Even when I get senior VTO lines, I often can't input all my trip preferences in the system (I believe they limit us to 16 lines of requests). Now it will help that we won't be requesting trips that are already filled by people in the view/add window ( I really appreciate that), however, for someone who doesn't want reserve at all, I suspect they will still run out of room to request all the trips they want before they start putting in the reserve blocks that they want, if they can't get trips. I also wonder how much room it will take to input a reserve block---ie, you can fit 4 trip requests in one line of the request, but I'll bet you won't be able to fit as many reserve block requests.

I guess we'll have to see how it works out, but I am distinctly pessimistic on this one. Will I be brave (or stupid) enough to request a VTO for December, or settle on a junk line?

FDXLAG

And again they are not shrinking the number of regular lines. Right now there is about a fifty fifty split between VTO and reserve lines. After the change is implemented it will be 60/40 VTO. But 20% of those VTO lines will be reserve VTO lines. So in the end we will still have the same number of reserve lines, but at least there is a system that eventually you will have some feedback on what crappy reserve days you sit. The system sucks now, any change has to be an improvement.

busdriver12

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree then. I think it's better to know what your reserve days are going to be 9 days earlier (via the bid, not the VTO), instead of being informed of it right before the bid month starts. You think it will be a great deal because somehow you have more control over your reserve days, which I don't think is going to happen. I guess we'll just have to see how it plays out.

It may go differently in other seats, but right now, I can tell you that VTO's in my seat already go junior to reserve. People are preferring to sit reserve on days they know and have a choice of ahead of time, to days they won't know until the last minute. However, that is just one seat position, so a small example.

Adlerdriver

Not moot - and your argument makes no sense.

Just because someone checks the conversion box doesn't mean they get it. Some months no one gets their reserve line converted. Other months no one checks the box but 5, 10, 15%.... whatever the number - get involuntarily converted. Checking the box just means you get your days off from your R-line honored.

His point is very valid. Under the new system, their will be more secondary line holders... period....dot. Under the old system, if the planners hit their numbers right, 100% of the R-days were awarded during the initial bid, the number of secondaries was the original number in the bid pack and no one got converted. I seriously doubt many months (if any) had 20% of the R-lines converted to secondaries. Things simply aren't that dynamic - flying just doesn't appear out of thin air.

Raptor

You can input more than the number of blanks--it's not limited. If you fill all the blanks and continue, it will then give you more blanks!

At least that's the way it worked the last time I tried it.

MaxKts

You can input as much as you want but a previously employed scheduler sent me an email once saying you are only allowed 10 requests! When I asked where that was written he said in the information on how to bid a secondary line!

FDXLAG

It has been 6 or 7 years but every time I have asked for a conversion (probably 3) I have been converted and gotten the weekend off I wanted. Under the new system I know I would rather have the last choice of a VTO line and have some say then the current last choice of a reserve line and have no say. YMMV.

busdriver12

Are you sure about that? I know that's how it works with the view/add processing window, but I thought that you didn't get another page with the secondary line worksheet. I'll have to look harder next time.

busdriver12

Oh man, what a bunch of BS that you were told. It says, in the instructions: "Limit requests to no more than ten trip/date combinations."
Now, that say to me that you are only allowed 10 requests. I take it that those are recommendations on how to put in the best VTO request. There are several more lines than that.

Plus, it would be laughable to put in only ten trip/date requests. The vast majority of those would be gone under the old system, before they even got to the #1 VTO holder. Sounds like someone didn't want to do the work to enter the trip requests.

MaxKts

We have a winner! Ask anyone that used to be based in ANC and they will know who it is.