Bearcat,

You got me a little confused there bud. What exactly do you mean by that is why 1st year 737 FO is 50%? Do you mean retention?

 

It means that pilot is bidding at 50%. He has moved half way up in seniority in his seat and base. The most senior 737 FO in EWR would be at 1% while the most junior would be at 100%
For example: If there are 500 737 FO's in EWR, and you are number 250 in seniority, you would be at 50%.
PBS uses your base percentage to determine what line to build for you. Although, it doesn't usually work out that way.

 

Ahhh So! I see, still a little confused on the PBS thing and exactly how it works though.

 

It's kind of like going to a resteraunt and telling your waiter 20 things you don't want from the menu. Then, leaving it up to him to pick from whatever is left over on the menu.
Oh yea, don't think that just because you've been at the resteraunt the longest, you should get first pick. The waiter gets to bring whatever is most convenient for him to put together.

Seriously though, PBS is a computer program that builds the lines. Everyone tells the computer what they like or don't like. (Ex: Dislike-Mexico city overnights). When the bidding period closes, the computer runs about a billion algorithms for about a week. During this time, it builds all the hard and reserve lines for the following month. It is an efficient money maker for the company. Only problem is it doen't always honor seniority and the lines are usually high time/low rest.

 

Well it sounds good, as per the invention. Seems as though it tastes bad.... Could it be in the design phase, that the parameters can be set to favor one side for productivity?
I guess it is a form of scheduling software I am not familiar with, yet I do see that both sides need to be involved in the adaptation of the beast for to be of some parity.

 

Great example.....

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by rk772

It is an efficient money maker for the company. Only problem is it doesnt always honor seniority and the lines are usually high time/low rest.

Here in lies the problem. We have no idea what the algorithms are and we never negotiated to have any input to them. In my previous experience with PBS, lines were available 2 hours after the bid closed. Why does CAL need 5 days?

 

Bingo. I am sure you are all are sick of me comparing us with Delta but again, they get a preliminary report over there before the final bid award is posted. usually there are no changes but it is a nice idea to kind of have a heads up if things are haywire. Further, everyone can see everyone else's reasons report so you know how people bid, and why they did or did not get certain portions of their bid. They also have the all important bidding wizard to help construct their bid. As you use the wizard it sort of shows what possible results you can get so it should reduce the "how the hell did i get that?" factor. No system is perfect but if we stick with this PBS we need to get something that works and not the cheapest piece of **** that the company is willing to nickel and dime.

 

How's about we don't stick with it and go back to line bidding. For those new to CAL, we had one of the best bidding systems out there with the ability to trade to just about get any day off you needed. Oh yeah, it used to maximize vacation as well so you could get the time off from vacation and not get penalized for doing so.

PBS sucks period.

 

Everybody is pretty happy with our PBS over here (Delta) and the PBS working group is always coming up with new features almost monthly. We've been using it about 2 years now I think. Our volunteers work really hard on it every month.

There are good products out there... and in today's airline world line bidding is probably going to be a thing of the past, so you might as well find something you like.