My point was simply that any way you slice it, everything you have awarded above your LCF is you working for free until you hit MPG. Whether you do it in your award or after by picking up trips.

So it doesn’t matter if you have an awarded line of 70 or 85 hrs, you don’t make anything until 85.5. So something is free.

Awarded line 70 hrs. The first 15 you pick up is free. Afterwards all is paid.

Awarded line is 85.5 (you bid to give them a unpaid 3 day trip because 15 hrs free) and after you’re paid straight.

Was just trying to inform people as some get wrapped around the axel of “picking up for free” but they don’t even realize that they’re “picking up for free” already when they bid to fly above LCF. They get all worked up how they’re working for free picking up a trip and not being paid for all of it but they turn around and bid to fly free.

If you want to fly more than MPG that’s great. Just have to realize if you fly 90 hrs it doesn’t matter if it’s in the award or picking it up through trading, you’re only paid above 85.5 hrs.

On your Ipad in Content Locker>Scheduling (or New Content)>Bid Period Information pg.5.
October is a 31 day month, so you can check the value listed for your vacation days and then make your own choice about what to do based on your awarded line.

To be awarded a legal line, his vaca credit and protected time credit (PTC) must be equal to or greater than the Line Construction Floor (LCF). With one week of vacation in October, the vaca credit is 22.75. With a LCF of 70 hours, he'll need to bid a line worth 47.25 hrs (70 - 22.75). Each day you're available to work for the month other than vacation is worth 2:20 in MPG (October is a 31 day month). So in this example, if he was a awarded a 47.25 line, he would actually get 56 hrs in MPG (24 days x 2:20). Total pay in this example is 78.75 hrs. If he wants any additional pay he'll either have to bid a line that makes him fly at least 8.75 hrs more than the minimum or he'll have to pick up flying that exceeds 8.75 hrs. So he'll make the exact same pay working 47.25 hrs as he will if he works up to 56 hrs. Only beyond working 56 hours will he actually see more money. So there is not "Beauty" in this system. If, like UALinIAH said, you work one minute beyond the LCF your are working for free until you close the gap between (LCF minus vaca credit) and the MPG. If you want an additional 10 hrs of pay (88.75) for the month, you'll either have to pick up a trip worth 18.75 or bid a line that has 18.75 more flying built in. Either way, you're flying 8.75 for free.

Ok. I get your point now. For Viperstick....this is true. It’s also true that if you bid high credit and are awarded it any extra trips yo7 pick up are straight pay on top. You’ll get paid that value on top.

Horrible advice. Viper, please ignore golfer's post.

How is it horrible advice? Read the first line of the attachment and tell me how I’m wrong. (Sorry, not sure why the attachment is blurry but its the one in PBS). If you have a week of vacation and your MPG is 56 hours...as long as PBS puts 56 or more hours of LPV on your award, you will not work for free if you pick up additional flying.

Vacation is add pay. Im not sure why that document lumps in the 22.75 hour with the chart.

What Hilltopper89 said is also correct...btw. High time line will put a LPV higher than MPG on your award. Thompson just used a whole bunch of words to say the same thing.

Are we making this too complicated?

If you want to get paid more than MPG + ADD Pay in a vacation month then you'll have to fly trips (LPV/PTC) with pay credit totalling more than MPG.

Does it matter if those trips were assigned by PBS or picked up later? Isn't the end result the same?

Wow, I can see why you're still in the dark about all of this. It's been explained THOROUGHLY in this thread and you obviously haven't read any of it.

It's horrible advice because you're telling him that the way to avoid flying for free when picking up flying is to bid a line that has you fly for free. How is that helpful?

Read what UALinIAH said:

"2 weeks of Vacation in Oct pays 85.5 hrs. Many BES is 70 hrs min. 5 days of flying for 85.5 hrs. You’re going to fly 15 hrs free so that you can pick up a day trip or something?"

He then goes on to say:

"Every minute over LCF up to MPG is free. But yeah, if you want to fly 15 hrs for free (in a 2 week vacation month) so that you can pick up some other trips then go for it."



This explains it perfectly. If viper bids an LCF line, he'd be getting 15.5 hours for free. If he follows your advice and bids a line that exceeds the 85.5 hour MPG, yeah he'd be able to pick up trips without "flying for free" but only because he foolishly bid a LINE that already had him flying for free.

It's bad enough that there are people who have been here a long time who still can't grasp this simple fact but to then to see those people get on a message board and perpetuate this misunderstanding as "advice" to others is just maddening.

Okay, your condescension aside, I get what you are saying. The original post implied he wanted to pick flying up to make more money. Yes, we fly for free if you fly more than the LCF (that gap of time till LPV exceeds MPG) But after the awards come out, flying for free is self-imposed. If the original poster wants to get into the 90+ range (which is what I assume he was getting at) without “flying for free”...then PBS award needs to be higher than MPG.

ORIGINAL POST: Anyone have advice on PBS bidding in vacation months so you don’t work for free if you pick up a trip?



Flying LCF gives the highest pay to work ratio...but it won’t maximize the dollar amount. To each his own. Different goals have different bidding strategies.


As an aside, it funny that you say I’m in the dark about how our pay works. Then you go on to talk about an 85.5 hour MPG in your lecture. Someone certainly doesn’t know how our pay works...but I will give you a hint...its not me.

Palm meet head.