Not necessarily! I needed 4 days off for a family commitment, was scheduled for 2 of them. I emailed and said I need those days offs and they "approved" PTO. Some people will say dont ask for PTO because they can say no, instead, just call in sick. This is probably the reason why we were told to VERY shortly after the new bidding system went into play......"Sick calls have increased quite a bit, we just want to remind you to wash your hands more often......"

PBS gives the company complete flexibility with their scheduling, they can fit you in where they need you, so of course they would prefer for you to go with that. On the otherhand, administered correctly, it could also be a win for the pilot so its a Win-Win....that is where it needs to get to. What I would do is go 8/6 and see if I got awarded a good change over date (middle of the week for me), if not, I would switch to PBS and see if it gets better.

I will say this, the amount of overtime days offered has dropped drastically from a few months ago. Maybe one can assume staffing levels are getting closer to adequate and if so, could allow for PBS to really start to honor requests.

I understood that choosing the 8/6 schedule, you are locked in it for a minimum of 6 months. Do you know the change over day when you sign up for that, or is it assigned? I would probably choose that if i could get a mid week changeover day.

8/6
 

A few more questions to add about the 8/6. Fresh off IOE and was told only Saturday/Sunday start is available. I really don't want to mess with flexbid so I was really hoping for any weekday start. Has anyone had success of doing the bidding for one or two months then trying to getting a weekday start? Or do ya'll think the only way to get a weekday start is to get locked in for 6 months Saturday/sunday start, then try to switch?

Here is what I would say, Flex KNOWS the bidding system needs work however they just cant seem to admit its a QOL issue. Becasue of that, my guess is they are only offering a Sat or Sun start because that sucks more than PBS and encourages people to go with PBS. What the company should do is every six months allow the starting day to be bid based on seniority. Newbies suck it up with Sat or Sun and eventually you can bid to your prefrence. Again, COMPLETELY logial but becasue the company wants to encourage PBS, they wont do it. So instead of making PBS better for the pilots to where most will want it, they use the stick approach and say if you dont take PBS your change over will be Fri, Sat, Sun. Again, its such a simple solution, and for a company that literally treats its pilots extremely well, why this is not a priority is mind numbing! If Flex could figure out the PBS, I would definitley see myself staying as a career.

The ONLY advantage Flex offers over the airlines is QOL. They need to get Flexbid squared away (it can't be that hard--PBS is not a new thing unless the Not Invented Here syndrome infests CQY...)and not try to foist it on DRL unless they get it functioning really well.

I asked nicely for a midweek 8/6 start and got Wednesday. I transitioned to Flexbid after the initial month of 8/6. My first bid was close to good. I had way worse at my former 121.

But, the bottom line is, Flex has to exceed the QOL at the 121 carriers because they can't outspend them. Functional PBS (that respects seniority) or a (legitimate) choice of fixed schedules with minimal weekend starts or the departures to the airlines will continue.

Well, considering the latest weekly email basically said that they don't care about SICs and PBS captains who complain about the schedule, odds aren't great that anything is going to be fixed. That combined with the new pilot supplements not improving anything for the pilots with regards to our work 'rules' will continue to drive attrition. Meanwhile CGF will continue to bad mouth the airlines and other opportunities to the pilot group in an effort to scare people into remaining on property. I think everyone can see how well that's going to go.

Well, they're gonna get what they paid for. Figuratively...

I've been hoping management would become "enlightened" my whole career. I've seen it a couple times and it was always short lived.

If you stay here and upgrade into DRL or ILC, you won't have to worry about stupid PBS. Better QOL here begins when you get off the Phenom (if that's what you're in) and get on a RL team.
Stop bit**ing about something that you don't have to stay in very long.

Thank you for the reply. I totally agree. They try to push you into a corner and shove Flexbid down your throat which makes you think your decision about coming to Flex. Little do they know my wife works in the hospital on weekends so it's not all that bad, but a Sat/Sun start still sucks for the kids lives. Does anyone have experience on which one would be better out of the two? I'm honestly leaning towards Saturday but I don't know the pros/cons between both. Also AA717driver, so you did 8/6 for one month then they let you switch to Flexbid? That's not all that bad if they didn't make you stay locked into it 6 months.