Longhornmaniac8

One thing they spend a lot of time on during the first few days of Indoc is how to bid. The 3 hours they give to that topic is longer than everything else, I believe. With that said, it's obviously nowhere near enough.

Knowing how to build a schedule in Flica can make or break one's QOL, pay, etc.

I was hoping that some selfless individuals could help those of us either new to it or bad at it with some pointers, tips, tricks, etc. that have helped you along the way.

Naturally, different people have different motivations, whether it's to maximize credit, maximize days off, hold a line as quickly as possible, create commutable pairings, and so on. Within the confines of our work rules and contract, it certainly seems there are ways to maximize your schedule for whatever end goal you have, but no one really talks about how to go about doing that.

Anyone want to throw some stuff out there for discussion?

VASBYT

Contact your mentor, they should be able to offer you some advice. Mine did.

Jungle Jim

I'll tell you that holding a line quicker is more to do with your position on the seniority list and base you're bidding in than bidding a schedule every month. Outside of that, my mentor taught me a lot of bidding tricks, cans, and cannots. There just isn't enough time in indoc to turn everyone into bidding wizards. Given that you're likely at the bottom of the pack bidding-wise, read and understand the contract especially when it comes to bidding reserve. You can select reserve preferences every month like what days you want off, what type of reserve you want (AM/PM short call, or long call), waiving certain contractual obligations like 3 day off blocks, and waiving composite reserve rules if all that is important to you. This can be important if you would rather be on a lot in a row, and off for longer blocks like I do. If you learn how to bid your reserve well, you'll find the schedule is as good as it gets for a reserve, and you'll usually get every preference you want because we're so fat on reserves right now and a lot of people don't spend the time to learn how to bid reserve well. Reserve pref bidding is a separate folder from line bidding. By the time you get off reserve, you'll probably have a pretty good grasp about how to bid a schedule well enough. It just takes practice, disappointment, and small victories.

TheWeatherman

Lot of good info on facebook group. You probably won't get much on here.

planesense

How does one find the FB group?

TheWeatherman

Get an invite from your mentor or a fellow pilot. By the time bidding will actually matter in your situation (which will be a long time) you will find one.

Please nobody PM me for it, I don't know any of you from a whole in the wall.

planesense

Well aren't you special? Perhaps if you're not interested in helping people you "don't know from a *hole in the wall", you should just not comment.

planesense

I think this is a great question. I'm with you in hoping for advice from selfless people.

TheWeatherman

awwe, did I hurt your feelings? Maybe they have a safe room for you in the training center you can go to.

planesense

Hahaha lol... you wish you could hide behind your keyboard and wield that sort of power. You do you bro, your ignorant 20-something anonymous self isn't going to bother me.