I've made it through 8 years at WN without anyone on my bid avoidance list. I've only had a couple captains I roll my eyes at, and they are the captains with a capital 'C' type who treat everyone else as the help.

 

I had a couple at the regionals, nobody at the major.

 

One bad report from a Captain isn't going to do you in. Make a name for yourself the first year, and you can expect your probie meets with the chief to be spicy, not mild.

These days, with literally thousands of new hires coming onto properties, you have the ability to absolutely vanish into the crowd. The fact that people still have the ability to rise above that is...impressive.

 

Unless it has changed, HA allows f/o's to bid avoid listed captains. Does not hold while on reserve.
The informal way is to drop a trip with said captains when awarded.

 

Yup, At my last company there was a Captain commuting from one base to another base because of better seniority.... Right, being an @$$ to everyone had nothing to do with it. And further back there was a guy shuffling back and forth from the SIM to the line because everyone hated flying/training with him, but he was actually okay outside of the cockpit.

 

Captains who are incapable of incorporating CRM into the operation. When I've got over 7000 hours of 121 flying, been at the company more than 5 years, with over 2000 hours on type, and the CA still micromanages everything about my involvment in the operation, they're going on the list. I don't have the patience to be paired up with people like that, let some junior pilot have that trip.

 

After almost three decades in this business (and being married to a special-ed teacher for almost as long), I have concluded that in most cases if you show me an uber high-avoidance-bid pilot, I will show you a high-functioning autistic. They have been counseled by chief pilots, HR types, and union reps until all are blue in the face, and all to no avail...because the high-AB pilot is simply incapable of changing their behavior. I am by no means defending it, but at the end of the day I feel a (slight) degree of sympathy for them because it would suck to go through life that socially clueless...and it likely will cost them their job and/or marriage at some point.

 

the world if men went to therapy:

 

Good GRIEF! I’m a senior FO at a regional who’s about to start upgrade, and had a similar experience with a micromanaging captain recently. He knew I was more than capable of doing the job and doing it competently, and I was even correcting and pointing out lots of things he was missing/forgetting. I started getting lots of ‘indications’ before pushback that he maybe a micromanager. I didn’t realize to what extent until we were taxiing out and then airborne. Thank God I only did a short turn with that guy and I was done with him!

I figured there were more of these types at the regionals and that the LCC’s/majors had a way of identifying them and preventing them from getting hired on. Or even if they do slip through the cracks and manage to get hired, that they were dealt with more effectively than how the regionals deal with them. However as time goes on I’m learning that may not be the case though. Sounds like every carrier, even majors, has their fair share of complete and total crap bags.

 

Unfortunately if we go to therapy we are supposed to report it to the FAA... Lie to fly!