Crappy line or Weekends off?
 

Ok fellas, Looks like I am 1 or 2 numbers away from holding a relief line( I hear QOL goes way up). Should I bid for that or bid for weekends off (Reserve). I would love to hold a relief line cause I never have, but Weekends off ( Looks like I will be able to hold, RESERVE of course) at this point sounds pretty da*n good, especially cause I havent had one since..........well the summer. I mean I am flying 90+ hrs a month on reserve, oh what to do what to do. I know everybody is different, but to you express guys what is your experience

I would take the relief line. Drinks are a lot cheaper during the week, compared to on weekends!

But I really have no clue how any of that 121 stuff works. ^..^

Well....I have no experience to tell of yet haha...but 90 hours a month with weekends off, sounds like a sweet deal to me.

if you can keep 90hrs a month up for as long as you can handle it, come mid November, you'll already be timed out, and imagine having a month and half vacation throughout the holiday's.

I think that it really depends on what you want, it's hard to setup schedules while sitting on reserve, and if your personal life is suffering, i'd say go for the relief line, but, if you're simply thinking about making $$, well, you know where to look.

yeah I like reserve dont care about weekends off but G/F is about ready to walk away from this, she cant handle it every weekend, "Joes Flying" she just bought a place she wants to spend time with me, I dunno its tough

It's startin' already bro...

Im tellin ya man, I dunno what to do. I mean being away 4 days at a time is one thing but weekends, going out with her friends and all of her friends are with their b/f', eventually we all know what thats going to lead to...........................:mad:

Well I caved in, I bid all the weekend off RESERVE lines first then the Relief lines, Im officially whipped :o

Amazing what that kitty will get us to do, eh?

Im tellin ya man............Im pathetic:(

Just wait until you are married! The Fun begins all over again! Good luck my friend! :)

haha thanks brotha

At least you'll be around for Hoboken's St. Patrick's Day

Now wait a minute, wait a minute hear....there is no such thing as a weekend or holiday here in this airline world...eh?

If the weekends are that important, then keep bidding the reserve. Because more than likely as a bottom relief line holder it's going to be working weekends. Wait till you are a little closer to the top of the pile of relief line holders. You are more likely to get what you want. Key word being likely.

Relief requets are just that, requests. There is nothing in the contract that says they have to honor anything you ask for or use any kind of senority based method for who gets what.

Sometimes a "senior" relief line holder can do better than a junior hard line holder. The only benefit of the hardline is the ILIW. But good lluck shiftintg your days off around. You might be able to get a few, but not rearrange your enitire line. In the relief requests box, just keep it simple. Something like "4 day trips, weekends off" or day trips, 2 days back to back, ect.

One guy told me that when he was the number 1 or number 2 relief line holder, he would look in the open time and just request which trips he wanted to fly. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.

Someone mind giving a real quick rundown on how bidding works?

You bid for the whole month at once, then can opt to drop / pickup trips?

You generally bid for one calendar month (some airlines use 4-week bid periods). Your bid must usually be submitted around the middle of the previous month, and you find out the results around the 20th.

There are two systems:

1) Hard Line: The company constructs schedules (called lines), and organizes them by quality, ie the number one line will probably have 18 days off, weekends off, short trips with good layovers in SAN, SFO, SEA, etc. The number 390 line will have 10 days off (Tuesdays & Thursdays), crappy trips with redeye flying and short layovers in places like DTW, TUS, BFL. Everybody submits a preference for which lines they want in priority order. The number one guy in domicile simply bids one line, and he gets it. The number two guy only has to bid for two lines, etc. The number 290 guy will probably bid the bottom 100 lines, cuz he knows he will never get anything higher than that anyway.

2) PBS: This is a computer program. It has a lot of options, and you tell it what you want (days off, credit, layovers, etc). It then will attempt to build you a custom line using trips that company has already built...the senior guys get dibs on the best trips, but PBS will usually give you at least some of what you want even if you are junior. It is NOT going to give a junior guy a 30 hour layover in SAN, but it will give you your wife's b-day off. Some folks complain about PBS since it gives the senior guys EVERYTHING they want, but it has always given me the days off I need, and I care a lot more about that then where I layover when I'm working. All airlines will be using this system in the near future anyway.

I will do you one better, try married with kids.:eek:

With all due respect - how the HELL would we know?

Because of my wife's work schedule I want Thursdays and Fridays off, but you have no idea how MUCH I want those days, maybe I don't like my wife much so I sort of want those days, but I'm not bothered if I don't get them. Maybe I just want to tell her I bid for those days off but no way in hell I actually want them?

How much do you want weekends off? That's an emotional response, and the one thing I can tell you is I have no idea about your emotions, why you cry at night when you're alone, why you're scared of one-legged elephants or why you slurp your milkshakes with a straw but take the straw out and crunch the ice of your drinks......

Man my score for pbs is always like -200000! it does usually give me the specific days off i want, but other than that its a crap shoot. how long did it take for you to start to get a schedule you could live with (not necassarily longevity, but learing how to really use the system). a bud of mine at skywest is just now starting to like it and he has been there almost 2 years.

hahaha, it beats getting a reserve line and having to work EVERY weekend in march. oh how i love being at the very bottom (and pbs)

hahha very true, well I got weekends off :), but I could of had a line :eek: I am going to keep bidding reserve until i can hold a Senior relief line, cause then at least I will maybe have some weekends off, but I would of had the most junior relief line so I would rather be on reserve anyway :)

HAHA not true. When in doubt, send flowers. She just wants to know you're thinking of her when you're gone.