Biffsteritis

Very well said.

pangolin

You have no clue. That’s not what unstacking means at all. If the min flying isn’t covered in a run for a particular period that flying is assigned as a coverage award from the bottom of the seniority list up. It’s awarded from your award pairing commands without regard to your negative conditions or days off preferences. In a properly staffed airline there won’t be any unstacking because the flying will be covered. In an understaffed airline pbs can be used by the company to cover the flying and force more pilots into reserve. It’s a double edged sword. With pbs the company can do more with less.

elmetal

First off, you have no idea about navblue. the FIRST THING assigned to a line on a navblue assignment IS an unstack. and here's a kicker, it does take into account your negative conditions AND your award preferences. Of course it doesn't take into account your day off preference, because that day is unstacked regardless.

It does NOT happen after awards. that is what a globalized system (aka AOS) does. Stop spreading lies if you don't know what the hell you're talking about.


Maybe you were at mesa where the company could change stacks daily, but that's not how navblue works at ALL

Ducttape

I fine you 5 points

I award you 5 points

TOGALOCK

Hey all. Long time lurker, new user and first time poster in the F9 forum. I've done my best to not get involved in the repetitive back and forth of the online cage match that these discussions have become, but I felt compelled to post my experience on the PBS/unstacking issue.


I have used PBS previously at, what is notoriously the most unforgiving company for PBS, the evil Mesa empire. The truth is, I was RARELY unstacked on requested days off. I have seen first hand, on multiple occasions, an unstack award go to someone senior to me. The difference? I requested the specific days off, the senior pilot did not. Their off days in that block of days were by chance in the initial award, not from a negative preference request. Where I most commonly felt the unstacking pain was when I had not requested specific days off, but simply used a cover-all command such as "max days off". In this particular instance I have seen my awarded monthly line go from 16 or 17 days off down to 12 or 13 after the unstacking process. Losing a requested day(s) off as a result of an unstack was commonly seen on holidays, where everyone and their first born requested that particular day. In that case, yes, you may get it on your initial award, but may find it taken away in an unstack if you are junior. At the end of the day you would not have held that day off under a line bidding system either. Having it awarded prior to unstacking is just PBS giving you an evil tease and then then laughing at your disappointment in the final award... Something that doesn't happen during line bidding. It's an airline schedule c*** tease.


The number one rule of PBS is reading the manual and knowing what you're doing. PBS is a computer program and, as with all computer programs, garbage in = garbage out. As an example, I was amazed at the number of people that I talked to who complained that they rarely get the days off they requested. Through discussion about their bid preferences I realized that they did not request days off using a negative "Day off" request. They requested "Days ON" around their desired days off. If they wanted off January 14 through the 18th, for example, they requested "Days on: ... Jan. 10, 11, 12, 13, 19, 20 ...". All this told the system is that they wanted to work these days. It didn't tell the system anything about wanting to be off on the days in between. A "Days On" command may work well if you have the in-laws coming for a visit and you want to make sure you "unfortunately have to work", but it is a poor way to get the days off you seek. If you do happen to get the days off going this route, there is a much higher chance that an unstack will leave you disappointed.


I have worked for three 121 airlines in my career and have used line bidding at two (Frontier being one of them) and PBS at another. I can honestly say that I do prefer PBS. While I understand the validity of people's concerns over vacation slide/drop, my ability to manipulate my schedule under PBS is more important to me. There have been times that the wife and I have taken vacations without me using a single minute of vacation time. While this can still be done with the current MOT to an extent, under PBS you can force yourself to reserve if you need/want large blocks of time off badly enough. If I was willing to go to the extent of being assigned reserve, I always got what I wanted.


As many have pointed out, PBS is simply a different method of assigning pairings. When I first started using PBS, I was under the false impression that PBS built schedules leg by leg from a pot of flying for the month. I didn't realize that the pairings were already constructed prior to the start of PBS awards. PBS will not spit pairings or create new pairings to meet someone's request. It simply tries to arrange pre-built pairings on a pilot's schedule based on their requests, starting at the most senior bidder. If a super-senior pilot wants to bid specific pairing numbers and build their PBS bid/schedule in that fashion, they can. It would essentially be the equivalent of dropping everything and then cherry picking during the current MOT window. It's just a different way to skin the cat.


I won't lie, there WILL be growing pains for a few months as people learn to use the PBS system. During my first month with PBS I learned what it was to bend over without lube. Month two, I dug into the manual a little more and applied some lube. By month three I discovered that TOO much lube was almost enough. After that, life was pretty darn good with PBS.


While I'm admittedly a hesitant "yes", I can completely respect (and won't fault) a pilot's decision for voting "no" based on their feelings towards: pay, rescheduling language, LTD, scope or whatever other issues may be a hot button for them. But, I'm pretty confident that people who are complaining about PBS will be pleasantly surprised with the results if they take the time to learn to use it properly. At the end of the day, if you can't get something awarded with PBS, you wouldn't be able to get it with line bidding either. The seniority system is the seniority system, regardless of how it is implemented during bidding. If you are voting no for issues beyond PBS, go for it. If the no vote is based on "the union promised us no PBS", than it may be worth a second thought.