Schedule Publication
 

​​​​Monthly schedules at Delta are published by the 15th for CA and 16th for FO. They usually average a day or two before those deadlines but it feels pretty late to me.

When do other airlines release schedules? Thank ya!

JetBlue has awarded sched for CAs out in the 7th and FOs on the 10th. There are then 3 swap windows open for 48 hours each that begin the day following the initial awards.

10th at F9

SWA has a lot of steps...

11th for basic line awards and trades open right away except for those with training, or those with "blank" lines. Final schedule for those with training that permits trading opens on the 16th. Blank lines (made up of fragments following vacation and training pulls) post 17th for bidding and close/award on the 20th. Monthly open time is visible for bids on 18th, but lines may be added to the MOT pool until close on the 24th. Extra super final training schedule (for those who had training but bid for blank lines) is posted 23rd. Monthly open time (all fragments left over after VA and training pulls) is awarded/posted on 25th.

So the majority is posted on 11th, but it keeps getting fiddled with until the 25th.

Appreciate the replies so far.

jetBlue 7th/10th
Frontier 10th
Southwest 11th (except training month and blank lines)
Delta 15th/16th

So far not looking good for D!

AA noon 16th

SY bid package comes out on the 16th, line awards come out on the morning of the 20th, revised schedules/initial open time on the 22st, final schedules on the 26th

Those are not deadlines at Delta. The deadline for them to be published in DBMS is by the 17th at 1800. The preliminary awards generally are loaded between 13-15 depending on when a weekend or holiday falls.

Shhh... It's one of Delta's oft-touted competitive advantages.

Is it true UPS has 2 month long schedules except November and December? Would be cool to have the days off info 2 months out for life outside of flying...

​​​​​​Seeing as everyone has different needs, I do not want to get to bid 2 months out. A lot of things I need to bid around often aren't scheduled until closer to the date I need off.

Correction to Frontier... CA on the 8th, FO on the 10th. Usually published a day early though.

What is the thought process behind schedules coming out at different times for CA/FO? 3 airlines I've been at they come out at the same time.

Funny seeing most places seem to publish the schedule early. At AA they legit wait until the exact minute as spelled out in the contract.

UAL
CA 15th
FO 17th. Run after CAs are final to accommodate “avoiding” particular CAs in bidding.

FOs schedules are published later so that they can bid to avoid flying with certain captains. Also, training captains trips will be removed from FO bidding to avoid having to drop FOs who may end up scheduled with a check airman.

F/Os can also bid to fly WITH particular Captains. I'm sure someone does that.

AS bid packages are published "Friday before the first Tuesday of the month." Bid open for 1 week and awards published that next Friday. So for May, bidding opened Friday Apr 2 and lines awarded Apr 9. There are two stages of step trading to change your schedule which runs another 7 days total.

Yea, but they don’t have PBS, so same CA/FO all 60 days. You better pray you get along with the guy you’re flying with.

UPS* 2 month bid

jetBlue 7th/10th
Frontier 8th/10th
Alaska 9th~12th
Southwest 11th (except training month and blank lines)
​​​​​Delta 13~15th/14~16th (technically 17th)
United 15th/17th
American 16th
Sun Country 20th
​​​​​
Atlas
Allegiant
FedEx
Hawaiian
Kalitta
Polar
Southern
Spirit

UPS bids are generally eight weeks long (two four week pay periods).

November bid is four weeks long (one pay period).

Periodically, the December/January bid is 9 weeks instead of 8 (one five week pay period, followed by a four week pay period).

To muddy the waters even more...

Bid package is published by 1700 SDF time 31 days before the start of the next bid. CA bids close 1300 SDF time 24 days before the start of the next bid. FO bids close 1300 SDF time 20 days before the start of the next bid. Awards for both must be published within 3 hours of close.

VTO [secondary line] bidding opens 14(CA)/13(FO) days before the next bid starts, and closes 12/11 days before the next bid starts.

VTOR [tertiary line] bidding opens 10(CA)/6(FO) days before the next bid starts and closes the following morning.

Atlas publishes “30 Day” and “60 Day” lines which are really one and two month lines except January and March each give February a day to make all three months 30 days. It’s random how many are 30 day and how many are 60 day. The bid packs go out at 17:00 Z on the 18th and bidding closes at 17:00 Z on the 21st. There will be some number of VTO (Vacation, Training and Other) lines in the bid. Awards are required to be published by 17:00 Z on the 23rd however they’ve been getting them out late on the 21st recently. If you got a VTO line there will be another set of lines posted at 17:00 Z on 24th with bidding open for 24 hours. The final award is posted by 23:59 on the 27th.

Polar only has its Chief Pilot to keep the certificate alive so there is no separate bidding for Polar flights.

UPS 6~7th/10~11th*
jetBlue 7th/10th
Frontier 8th/10th
Alaska 9th~12th
Southwest 11th (except training month and blank lines)
​​​​​Delta 13~15th/14~16th (17th deadline)
United 15th/17th
American 16th
Sun Country 20th
Atlas/Polar 21st (23rd deadline)**
​​​​​
Allegiant
FedEx
Hawaiian
Kalitta
Southern
Spirit

*24 days prior/20 days prior (8 week bid except Nov (4 weeks) Dec-Jan (8 or 9 weeks))

**30 or 60 day lines, company discretion

Schedule Publication
 

From the Q1 2017 UAL contract comparison

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...e21d3768b.jpeg

And just to clarify FedEx:

The contract says, “Captains’ bids shall close between 21 and 17 days prior to the commencement of the new bid period. Bidding for First Officer awards shall close 24 hours following the close of the bidding for Captain awards.” Although in practice, they always publish the captains’ bid awards on the 19th day before the new bid period begins.

FedEx bid periods are (8) 28 days bid months and (5) 35 day bid months. So just like UPS, you can’t just subtract the number of days before the end of the month (30 or 31 days) to get a calendar date that the bids are awarded. To get a true comparison, you would have to convert everyone to a, “days before next bid period begins,” in order to make a fair comparison of FDX/UPS with everyone else who uses traditional bid months.

For example, the captains’ May bid was awarded on April 13th. That’s because the May bid period starts on Monday May 2nd (all bid months begin on the first Monday of the month or the last Monday of the previous month). If you would’ve subtracted 19 days from the 30 days in April, you would’ve gotten a calendar date of April 11th instead of the actual award date. The dates that awards get published are always different every month but they are always 19 days before the next bid month begins.

Spirit: Under the Covid Mou bids close on the 17th and awards are out for CAs on 19th and FOs on 20th.

UPS 6~7th/10~11th*
jetBlue 7th/10th
Frontier 8th/10th
Alaska 9th~12th
Southwest 11th (except training month and blank lines)
​​​​​Fedex ~11th/~12th**
Delta 13~15th/14~16th (17th deadline)
Hawaiian 14th/16th (based on Q12017 chart)
United 15th/17th
American 16th
Spirit 19th/20th
Sun Country 20th
Atlas/Polar 21st (23rd deadline)***
​​​​​
Allegiant
Hawaiian
Kalitta
Southern

*24 days prior/20 days prior (8 week bid except Nov (4 weeks) Dec-Jan (8 or 9 weeks))

**~19 days prior/~20 days prior (17/16 days prior deadline, 8 4-week bids and 5 5-week bids)

***30 or 60 day lines, company discretion


Thanks for the input everyone, I had no idea the wide range the industry has. Definitely room for improvement here at D.

Spirit reverts to the normal bidding timeline in May with the expiration of the COVID MOU. Bids open on the 7th and close on the 12th. CA schedules are published on the 14th and FO schedules on the 15th.

I’m curious if the chart I posted is still accurate as to bidding system used. Does Alaska, frontier, and spirit still use line bidding or have they transitioned to PBS?

Spirit uses PBS.

UPS 6~7th/10~11th*
jetBlue 7th/10th
Frontier 8th/10th
Alaska 9th~12th
Southwest 11th (except training month and blank lines)
​​​​​Fedex ~11th/~12th**
Delta 13~15th/14~16th (17th deadline)
Spirit 14th/15th
Hawaiian 14th/16th (based on Q12017 chart)
United 15th/17th
American 16th
Sun Country 20th
Atlas/Polar 21st (23rd deadline)***
​​​​​
Allegiant
Hawaiian
Kalitta
Southern

*24 days prior/20 days prior (8 week bid except Nov (4 weeks) Dec-Jan (8 or 9 weeks))

**~19 days prior/~20 days prior (17/16 days prior deadline, 8 4-week bids and 5 5-week bids)

***30 or 60 day lines, company discretion

Frontier moved to PBS.

[1] UPS 6~7/10~11*
[2] jetBlue 7/10
[3] Frontier 8/10
[4] Alaska 9~12
[5] Southwest 11 (except training month & blank lines)
​​​​​[6] Fedex ~11/~12**
[7] Spirit 14/15
[8] Hawaiian 14/16 (based on Q12017 chart)
[9] Delta 17 (varies 13~16/14~17)
[10] United 15/17
[11] American 16
[12] Sun Country 20
[13] Atlas/Polar 21 (23 deadline)***
​​​​​
Allegiant
Hawaiian
Kalitta
Southern

*24 days prior/20 days prior (8 week bid except Nov (4 weeks) Dec-Jan (8 or 9 weeks))

**~19 days prior/~20 days prior (17/16 days prior deadline, 8 4-week bids and 5 5-week bids)

***30 or 60 day lines, company discretion

Updated to fix Delta's rank

SWA bid packets posted on 4th and bidding closes on 9th. 11th is when they officially get posted, but we can always see what line number was awarded a couple hours later on the 9th.

[1] UPS 6~7/10~11 *
[2] jetBlue 7/10
[3] Frontier 8/10
[4] Southwest 9 **
[5] Alaska 9~12
​​​​​[6] Fedex ~11/~12 ***
[7] Spirit 14/15
[8] Hawaiian 14/16 (based on Q12017 chart)
[9] Delta 17 (varies 13~16/14~17)
[10] United 15/17
[11] American 16
[12] Sun Country 20
[13] Atlas/Polar 21 (23 deadline) ****
​​​​​
Allegiant
Hawaiian
Kalitta
Southern

*24 days prior/20 days prior (8 week bid except Nov (4 weeks) Dec-Jan (8 or 9 weeks))

**Officially the 11th but line award known on the 9th. Refer to post #4 by flensr for training, blank lines and open time.

***~19 days prior/~20 days prior (17/16 days prior deadline, 8 4-week bids and 5 5-week bids)

****30 or 60 day lines, company discretion

Updated to fix SWA's rank