PBS question
 

Recently hired, haven't even started basic indoc yet. I understand that there is a fairly new PBS system in use now. Any reviews? Initially, I'm hoping to work 14 day tours to maximize days off in a row, plus I want to minimize riding middle seat in a packed commercial narrow body as much as I can. How realistic will it be for a bottom of the list new guy to get a schedule like that ? Or is it like other PBS systems I've seen where it is so heavily seniority weighted, if you're at the bottom of the list, bidding is a waste of time. Thanks!

You won't be able to use PBS to get 14 day lines, regardless of your seniority. You'll have to work directly with scheduling. An email goes out asking who wants longer lines that you'll reply to and go from there.

Also there are procedures in place to keep us out of the middle seat as much as possible. Spend some time reviewing your employee guides, as the policies are outlined in them.

As of the last bid cycle, PBS is officially out to pasture and Flexbid is the new system. The quarterly email and calling scheduling is no longer needed to get those longer rotations beyond 8 days.

Flexbid allows you to select any combination of rotations (6/5, 7/6, 8/7, 9/6, 10/8....etc) up to a max of 14/13 and then rank order them. I don't know if you can get anything beyond 14 days "on" at this point as I'm not even remotely interested in being on the road that long. You can also load your preferences and they will be the same every bid cycle until you make changes (aka fire and forget method of bidding...lol). They should cover all that during Indoc when they give the module on Tailwinds, since that is where your bid preferences and schedule reside now.

Welcome aboard!

Thanks! The info is much appreciated!

TIL, interesting developments. Hopefully it helps our pilots get a better shot at getting what they want from scheduling.

One of my classmates who just finished his first rotation said his captains didn’t really have much input as to his questions about Flexbid. Sounds like it should be fairly straightforward.

Wow, they were just bragging about PBS yesterday at RTAG…

I think some are still stuck on the old name...everyone knows PBS though, so maybe it's just easier to say it that way... ;)

So no more picking days to try to have off? Just pick a rotation and hope for the best?

There are six categories you can fill out, one of them being specific calendar days off. You can then rank order those six categories based on importance to you for that month. The categories are: Flight rotation length, Specific days off, Specific days on, # Days worked (range), Week days on, and Week days off.

I don't use those last two as I no longer have kids at home so just leave them blank and ranked 5th and 6th in my bid.