For the guys that like PBS, is it able to give you at a minimum 17 days off, and at times 26-28 days off with one week of vacation use, with no hit in minimum monthly guarantee?

PBS is generally good for the top 10-20%
Even very junior bidders can usually get the days they want off.
If the pairings from the company are crap... Nothing can fix that.. not even line bidding.
BID realistically. When I was at RAH I was the BASE FO rep for S5 and MOST of the time when guys got crappy schedules it was because of unrealistic bidding. The MORE restrictions you put out there... eventually the systems gives you the finger and just starts assigning trips. ONLY very senior guys should be asking for specific pairings on specific days. Middle of the road guys might throw one or two curve balls at the system trying to massage their schedule. But the junior guys should ask for specific days... and maybe a restriction on show or release times ( but that could backfire )....

I have done both and both have advantages.

PBS bites ! Why did people junior to me get Christmas off ? My bid couldn't have been more explicit-"Prefer off Dec. 25th".The company can manipulate the system to get the results THEY want."Award Report Time before xxx.."-"not considered"..."Prefer off weekends"-"not considered"-still people junior to me get it.Bid what you want-at the top of the results page you'll get hit with "Affected by denial mode","Affected by unstacking" or my personal favorite "Manual Assignment"."Set min sked " means an 88 hour line with 12 days off with 4:30AM show times.My last bid had "honored" after every request,but not one request was honored-see "denial mode" and "unstacking " above.It ought to just say "Seniority-not considered " and be done with it.

PBS is great if you know how to work the system and are flexible. You also need to know what you are able to hold with your seniority. I was holding atleast 15 days off when I was in the bottom 5% of lineholders. My monthly line value was min guarantee but I didn't care. One month I did 2 4 days and a 5 day and I was about 5 from the bottom out of 200 line holders which was also 1 month before I was furloughed.

If you bid for stuff you can't hold you will get really really really bad trips.

true but that is not the spirit of a pbs. It it being used as a manipulation tool rather than a scheduling & line matching tool. Real PBSs are created as a replacement for paper bids and rogue programs that do line sorting and stuff.

I typically hold 18 days off and with vacation had 22 days off and my 75 hour guarantee.

i'm just 2 days too late

It's a great system, but make sure your management buys all the software options for most flexibility. We had teething problems. Contracting a trial period before accepting it gives you more negotiating power to hold over management before signing up for PBS.

For the most part I like PBS though it could certainly be better. I am a junior (60%) line holder who does not commute so I am easily able to get weekends off and even get some of the layovers I like. If I commuted, I would certainly have to sacrifice my weekends in order to get a more commutable line. If your company is considering it, make sure you do not give them a blank check! It is imperative to get very clear parameters set with regard to pairings, number of reserves, adequate staffing and some percentage of uncovered pairings in open time. Get the rules in writing or you will be sorry!

Yep!!!!!!!!!!!!!