If you wouldnt mind would you guys post your bid prefrences with the note of why you did it that way ie days off, comutability ect...
Mesa is not giving us alot of practice before we jump into it.
Thanks

 

As a commuter, I bid:

- Days off on dates I need.
- Layover cities that I want
- 900 Flying (longer, but fewer legs)
- Commutable show times
- Days off in large blocks (5+ days)

This gets me a lot of 4 day trips, a few five days and some 4 days followed by 1-2 days. Long work weeks, but long off periods with fewer total commutes each month.

I'm too lazy to bid pairings, but if you're already used to analyzing hard lines and have decent seniority bidding pairings can take all the guess work out of what you get. I'm senior enough to do it, but not likely on my first layer, so I would have to build seven different lines out of available pairings.

You have to be sensible when bidding pairings...if you bid on a commutable 3-day trip that pays 22 hours and has sweet layovers, you just wasted a layer, cuz somebody more senior to you will grab that pairing.

 

We have seven layers (lines) of PBS. If PBS gets to the 7th layer and can't accomodate your requests, you'll get screwed with whatever PBS wants to give you. I use lines 1 and 2 for my "dream schedule." I build the exact schedule I want in the first and second layer. If you bid pairings, don't put any other preferences in that layer, it might prevent you from getting that.

Heres how I bid...
Layer:
1 - Specific pairing and days off
2- Specific pairing and days off
3 - Locals, show/release by xx:xx, credit > xx:xx
4 - 2 days, show/release by xx:xx, credit > xx:xx
5 - Locals
6 - 2 Days
7 - Three days

I'm senior, so I usually get awarded my first or second choice, but if youre junior, you can't be picky. Dont put too many properties in your layers. The more you have, the higher your risk of screwing up your award. Get less restrictive the farther you get into your layers.

It's only as hard as you want to make it. Some folks spend about 5 minutes on their bid, some take the whole 7 days...

 

High-weekends off
High-Mondays off
Medium- high productivity per duty period
Medium- days off
Low- avoid deadheads
Low- avoid sits longer than 3 hours

I typically get 18 or more days off 75-80 hours block, and all weekends and Mondays (wife's off day) each month. The work combo is a week off and 3 weeks of 4-day trips, or a combo of some 2/3/4 days trips I equal 12 days working in a normal month.

 

i just go through and pick the pairings i want. usually they are 3 day trips tue-thurs. once in a while i will get a 2 day during the week if i can still get up to 75 hours.

 

Don't ask for much. I ask for one maybe two days off and that is it. As a result I usually get weekends off. Don't really understand how that works but it does. In december I did not bid at all thinking that I would end up working on x-mas anyway. Not only did I get x-mas off, but x-mas eve and new years day off too.

The guy above asked PBS for too much so it put him on reserve while I held his line for the past two months.

 

PBS is a joke. Everyone at mainline carriers I have talked to hate it. People that like it are crazy. If scheduleing wanted to they could give you the shaft with out any way of you knowing it in advance. With our contract I can turn 7 days of vacation into 20 days off with pay if I bit correctly...I'd like to see PBS do that!

Sorry to stray from topic...just thought I would gloat a little...why anyone would want PBS or any union allow it is beyond my understanding.

 

i get 20 days off a month anyway using pbs with out vacation. If i have vacation then forget it, with my slide i could nearly take an entire month off, with just 7 days of vacation. and thats with pay too.

i only worked the first 1 1/2 weeks in novemeber last year. and i had vacation and days off for the rest of the month.

in december last year i only worked the first week. then my days off and vacation took care of the rest.

so with just 2 weeks of vaction i only worked 2 1/2 weeks between november and december.
pbs is great if you are not at the bottom of the list and you know how to use it.

 

pbs sucks. glad we dont have it at our company

 

I love PBS...usually get 16-18 off a month. I'm 12 out of 45 in base

Here's my bid for May

SET MIN SKED
2:
WAIVE RULE MinDaysOff 2

3:
AVOID employee number xxxxxx

4:
PREFER OFF 28May, 29May, 30May, 03May, 31May

5:
PREFER OFF 06May, 20May 19:00-23:00L

6:
PREFER OFF 07May 01:00-14:00L

7:
AWARD trip C7432 , C7406 , C7407 , C7443 , C7074

8:
AWARD trip C7047 , C7006 , C7050 , C7052 , C7055

9:
AWARD trip C7407 , C7046 , C7024 , C7032 , C7014

10:
AWARD trip C7430 , C7025 , C7435 , C7434 , C7401

11:
AWARD trip C7426 , C7431 , C7428 , C7427 , C7424

12:
AWARD trip C7444 , C7001 , C7036 , C7037 , C7030

13:
AWARD trip C7038 , C7040 , C7043 , C7423 , C7422

14:
AWARD trip C7404 , C7403 , C7402 , C7405 , C7425

15:
AWARD trip C7008 , C7092 , C7039 , C7408 , C7409

16:
AWARD employee number xxxxxx
17:

AWARD TRIPS


Line 16 is a check airman...if I don't complete my line with all the trips above, just give me something with the checkairman so that I have a good shot of being taken off for IOE.