I'm a ExpressJet (XJT) pilot looking to gather information from pilots that are currently working with PBS. With the ASA-XJT merger quickly developing, XJT pilots will be voting for a joint CBA with PBS attached to it sometime in the future. Most XJT pilots don't know much, if anything, about PBS.. but we have heard plenty of negative about it from CAL pilots; especially the XJT pilots that left for CAL. Therefore our automatic answer to PBS is to vote no for anything PBS, because our current system is so good and allows us so much flexibility with our schedules. For instance, one week of vacation easily turns to 2-3 weeks off. Please answer the questions below and add anything that would help the average line pilot understand the positive/negative aspects of PBS. It's important to include your airline and percentile, as every airline has a different PBS and from what I have heard, only the top 20% are happy, while the other 80% hate PBS. Please share..

1. What airline are you with?
2. What percentile to you bid in base?
3. How many days off, in a row, do you get generally for vacation?
4. Do you generally get what you bid for? (commutable, days off, etc..)
5. Overall thoughts

Thanks for your feedback.

Not necessarily true. Most senior guys don't take the time to bid properly and their awards suffer. Granted, PBS is not a perfect solution, it does grant each user flexibility (equal to their bidding seniority) to make their schedules (somewhat) to fit their needs. I like the "you get what you put into it" mentality (meaning I spend some time bidding, beyond what the average would do). One thing you also have to account for when making comparisons between seniority and satisfaction is staffing levels. Currently, bidding 35% and seeing some "company-mandated" pairings that fall outside any of my bid parameters because the the constraints the company puts on the system (due to staffing levels, required minimum hours, etc).

Example: Typically bid 3-day pairings, commutable (>10:00 report, <18:00 release) and end up with 4-day commutable pairings with one 1-day or 2-day pairing attached to a 4-day pairing under the monicker "company mandated".

............

In all honesty I wouldn't pay much attention to what the CAL pilots are telling you, you're not going to be using their system. As for the ASA pilots, I've heard nothing but good things so far from the guys who know what they are doing. As for the people that didn't take the time to learn the system, well you could only imagine.

In my opinion, I would talk with ASA guys as much as possible considering they are on the system you may be using.

1. ASA
2. Bottom 15 percent
3. 4 - 4 day trips for the month - leaves 3 days off between
4. Per practice bids and for the month of Feb. the system made a line from my preferences half way down my list.
5. Overall thought, it's a powerful tool if you know what you're doing. You can build a schedule how you want it. Some like up to 105 credits while others like 65, this gives more flexibility to accommodate that.

I bid 60% in base and never do a trip longer than a 2 day with weekends off. Will this new system allow me to keep my lifestyle?

Depends on parings created, which the company has control of. I can tell you at ASA with line bidding you likely could not, again because of paring construction, not because of the system in place for bidding. With the right parings you absolutely could do that with ASA's PBS. And you could specify how many legs per day, where to overnight, how long the over night, and about 300 other different items.

As for the original question of the post. Not one other airline has a PBS system as flexible as ASA's. There is no comparing apples to apples. Delta is kind of close, but we still have better rules. The only thing we lack is control over paring construction, which I hope to get in the JCBA.

I'm bottom 1/4 CA at ASA and I have been on reserve for over 3.5 years. First line with PBS is 3 4 days with one day of training. 18 days off. Only 75 hrs of credit, but if I chose to I could build it up, but I have a stretch of about 10 days off that I just feel like keeping. That is not using any vacation.

ASA- 1 week of vacation in FEB and I have the first 20 days off. Will still be paid 75 hours with working one 4 day and recurrent training.

at Republic we just switched to Flica for PBS

1. i bid about 50% in base, and i've gotten everything i wanted the last 2 months. most guys get what they want, other than those that bid way above their seniority or the ones that don't ask for help with the new system.

2. i get about 14 days off but it's actually more since most of the trips i fly end after midnight so it looks like a day of work.

3. we get 7 days (mon-sun) for vacation, but it can vary how many you get off. bid the first 2 weeks of Sept. last year and ended with 28 days off in a row.

4. i bid for Fri & Sat off, and 3-4 day trips rarely do i not get what i want.

5. i much prefer PBS to line bidding as you can make the schedule you want. having a little one in a few months, and after that i'll want 3-4 day trips starting on Saturday so we can keep the babysitter costs down. with line bidding that will be up to the crew planners. PBS means i can pick the trips so i'm not going to work at 5am or getting home at 11pm.

Another added feature we received with PBS (not really associated with PBS per say, but still an improvement) is the ability to trade/drop specific legs in a pairing. For example, you receive a 4 day with 5 legs on the last day. You can put up for grabs those 2 last round trips leaving you just one leg from the outstation to home. Or drop more and make it a 3 day, etc.

1)ASA
2)Bottom 20%
3)First month with PBS got 4 - 4 days, Thurs-Sat off, 14 Days off and 75 hours credit. Picked up a nap in open time after the fact
4)Its all about how well you pay attention to the PBS trainers and understand the system