Best PBS parameters to minimize commuting
 

Does anyone have a good method to minimize commute with PBS? I would love to just be gone 2 wks and knock out all the flying. Any good ideas on how to put my bid in?

Set condition...LIVE IN BASE...Else start next?

(I'm a commuter too. Couldn't resist, though.)

I can't disagree. Wish it was possible. :D

Well I suppose now I'm obligated to help, huh? Crap. Can we get some more info? Base, aircraft, relative seniority in category, even where you're commuting from might be handy?

Well I'm just looking for how I would tell PBS to tightly space my trips all together. Basically one after another. Is the best command the Pattern command? Or min time in base? Or another?

Can you at least tell us which airline?

Waive min days off between trips...bid specific pairings?


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Go to work for atlas or Kalitta....17 days sttaught every month. And they pay for your commute. There.....problem solved.

I'm also interested in any tips. Delta, living in ATL, commuting to NYC, 7ER B, 94% in category according to this:

Pilot Relative Position

So far, I'm just trying to resist asking for a prefer off day unless I really need it and asking for 8 day, then 7 day, then 6 day etc trips. Anything obvious I'm missing?

At 94% make sure to enter a reserve bid too with days off preferences.

Waive min days off between trips
 

A previous poster suggested it and I second that if you waive min days off between work blocks, it might help your cause. Minimum days off between work blocks is 2 per the contract, but if you waive it, you're allowing pbs more flexibility to ram your trips together. Also, I put "avoid show time before14:00" in my #1 group, then in my #2 group, I'll put "avoid show time before 13:00", then 12:00 and so on with each subsequent bid group. You'll see that as you move the "avoid show time before" statement earlier and earlier, the trip pool will grow, giving you a greater chance of being awarded a line with each bid group. If your "avoid show time before" statement is above ALL your award statements, it will fail your bid group if it can't make every single trip follow that criteria.

Another technique is to use the award statements with different weightings. like in the attached bid group. Remember that avoid statements only affect things below the avoid statement. So, I've told it that I want as many 1 day trips that honor the first three avoid statements as possible. I want as many 2 day trips as possible that honor the first 10 lines of avoid statements. Line 12 where it says award work L- will give me as few trips as possible (L, L- and L-- tell it that you want as few of that thing as possible= the most days off) that honor the first 10 lines of avoid statements. Line 13 where I put avoid duty time between 1:00 and 0800 only affects my award work L statement on line 14. So the system trashes the trips that don't honor my avoid statements, then sorts the remaining trips in priority order using the award statements with the weightings. So my L bucket is actually my first choice and will honor ALL the avoid statements above it all the way to line 1. My L- bucket on line 12 ignores the avoid statement on line 13 since it's below and only looks at the avoids above it, so it is less restrictive than my L bucket. Using this method, it will build you a line with as few total trips as possible to get you in the target credit range (because the awards are L and L-) and it will give you as many trips out of the L bucket as possible before it jumps down to the L- or L-- buckets to finish building your line. You could us this weighting system to tell it to award you as few early showtimes as possible, making your monthly schedule as commutable as possible.
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The Delta and United PBS systems are built completely differently. I tried to help a mil buddy with his Delta bidding and when we logged into their version of PBS, it's not even close to the same.

Is this something we learn about in indoc? As of last week, I'm in the United pool. :D
Will be relo'ing to Seattle for a reserve job, and hopefully getting a boeing jet out of SFO.

I believe it's a completely different company that wrote the programs. Doesn't United use Carmen? That's what the DL flight attendants use and crew planning uses to create the rotations, but the DL pilots use Navtech.

Use the set work blocks function to three or four. PBS will prioritize building a line that gives you fewer, longer work blocks. Be aware, though, that if you are junior, and/or if you put other restrictions such as specific days off each week or work block end time, it may fail to build you a legal line and push to your next bid group.

Good luck

There is a PBS class at the end of indoc, but a lot of guys skipped it. I learned a little from it, but found the videos available via Flying Together to be more helpful.

https://flyingtogether.ual.com/web/c...S_Training.jsp

Guess you need an employee number and login. Possible to get that before indoc?

I guess I assumed the OP was a United guy. If not, then ignore everything I just said, haha. I believe Jeppesen is the vendor for the United PBS system.

SET Max Work Blocks 2 or 3
SET Max Length of Work Blocks: personal pain threshold
Waive 1 in 7 in Base

This will attempt to force to back work blocks. I usually have a day in between trips (arrive on redeye and depart next day pm) which satisfies the 30 hrs of rest rule. Unfortunately I don't think it's feasible to do it all in one block unless you were somehow to get 3 high credit (23+ hrs each) 4 days with the 30 hrs between each, giving you a 70ish hour line(2 week period assumed). But here you'd have a full 2 days wasted during the 30 hr rests unless you plan to commute home those days. I have been able to do it in 2 work blocks though.

Best bet is go to prefbid.com and talk with them. They're experts.

Maybe I missed it, but I don't believe the OP stated what airline he works for. I would think that would be a pertinent piece of information to have.

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