Atlas publishes “30 Day” and “60 Day” lines which are really one and two month lines except January and March each give February a day to make all three months 30 days. It’s random how many are 30 day and how many are 60 day. The bid packs go out at 17:00 Z on the 18th and bidding closes at 17:00 Z on the 21st. There will be some number of VTO (Vacation, Training and Other) lines in the bid. Awards are required to be published by 17:00 Z on the 23rd however they’ve been getting them out late on the 21st recently. If you got a VTO line there will be another set of lines posted at 17:00 Z on 24th with bidding open for 24 hours. The final award is posted by 23:59 on the 27th.

Polar only has its Chief Pilot to keep the certificate alive so there is no separate bidding for Polar flights.

UPS 6~7th/10~11th*
jetBlue 7th/10th
Frontier 8th/10th
Alaska 9th~12th
Southwest 11th (except training month and blank lines)
​​​​​Delta 13~15th/14~16th (17th deadline)
United 15th/17th
American 16th
Sun Country 20th
Atlas/Polar 21st (23rd deadline)**
​​​​​
Allegiant
FedEx
Hawaiian
Kalitta
Southern
Spirit

*24 days prior/20 days prior (8 week bid except Nov (4 weeks) Dec-Jan (8 or 9 weeks))

**30 or 60 day lines, company discretion

From the Q1 2017 UAL contract comparison



And just to clarify FedEx:

The contract says, “Captains’ bids shall close between 21 and 17 days prior to the commencement of the new bid period. Bidding for First Officer awards shall close 24 hours following the close of the bidding for Captain awards.” Although in practice, they always publish the captains’ bid awards on the 19th day before the new bid period begins.

FedEx bid periods are (8) 28 days bid months and (5) 35 day bid months. So just like UPS, you can’t just subtract the number of days before the end of the month (30 or 31 days) to get a calendar date that the bids are awarded. To get a true comparison, you would have to convert everyone to a, “days before next bid period begins,” in order to make a fair comparison of FDX/UPS with everyone else who uses traditional bid months.

For example, the captains’ May bid was awarded on April 13th. That’s because the May bid period starts on Monday May 2nd (all bid months begin on the first Monday of the month or the last Monday of the previous month). If you would’ve subtracted 19 days from the 30 days in April, you would’ve gotten a calendar date of April 11th instead of the actual award date. The dates that awards get published are always different every month but they are always 19 days before the next bid month begins.

Spirit: Under the Covid Mou bids close on the 17th and awards are out for CAs on 19th and FOs on 20th.

UPS 6~7th/10~11th*
jetBlue 7th/10th
Frontier 8th/10th
Alaska 9th~12th
Southwest 11th (except training month and blank lines)
​​​​​Fedex ~11th/~12th**
Delta 13~15th/14~16th (17th deadline)
Hawaiian 14th/16th (based on Q12017 chart)
United 15th/17th
American 16th
Spirit 19th/20th
Sun Country 20th
Atlas/Polar 21st (23rd deadline)***
​​​​​
Allegiant
Hawaiian
Kalitta
Southern

*24 days prior/20 days prior (8 week bid except Nov (4 weeks) Dec-Jan (8 or 9 weeks))

**~19 days prior/~20 days prior (17/16 days prior deadline, 8 4-week bids and 5 5-week bids)

***30 or 60 day lines, company discretion


Thanks for the input everyone, I had no idea the wide range the industry has. Definitely room for improvement here at D.

Spirit reverts to the normal bidding timeline in May with the expiration of the COVID MOU. Bids open on the 7th and close on the 12th. CA schedules are published on the 14th and FO schedules on the 15th.

I’m curious if the chart I posted is still accurate as to bidding system used. Does Alaska, frontier, and spirit still use line bidding or have they transitioned to PBS?

Spirit uses PBS.

UPS 6~7th/10~11th*
jetBlue 7th/10th
Frontier 8th/10th
Alaska 9th~12th
Southwest 11th (except training month and blank lines)
​​​​​Fedex ~11th/~12th**
Delta 13~15th/14~16th (17th deadline)
Spirit 14th/15th
Hawaiian 14th/16th (based on Q12017 chart)
United 15th/17th
American 16th
Sun Country 20th
Atlas/Polar 21st (23rd deadline)***
​​​​​
Allegiant
Hawaiian
Kalitta
Southern

*24 days prior/20 days prior (8 week bid except Nov (4 weeks) Dec-Jan (8 or 9 weeks))

**~19 days prior/~20 days prior (17/16 days prior deadline, 8 4-week bids and 5 5-week bids)

***30 or 60 day lines, company discretion

Frontier moved to PBS.