I heard of a soon to be retiree who is going to work for company to look into preferential bidding system...that's the last thing we need.

I realize alot needs to take place before it's implementation, but, I'm concerned regardless...

Bueller?

I'm with you magic rat, PBS is horrible, except for the very top 5% of bidders in each seat (in which case they already get the schedules they want). Pref bidding can seriously negatively impact our vacation, training, secondary lines, and overall scheduling control, to name a few. I've seen it implemented at other airlines, and it is NOT pretty.

Hopefully it's a bad rumor.

It can only happen if we vote for it.

Single item veto. Period.

Over at XJT (regional puke, I know. I'll try to act like a big boy here) the company has been talking with the Union about a LIVE pref bidding system for our relief and reserve lines. In the roadshows where the Scheduling Committee has demonstrated the program, they have mentioned that the FedEx guys have looked at it as well. Its called SmartPref by a company called Crewing Solutions.
SmartPref Preferential Bidding System - How it Works | Crewing Solutions

There are some pretty good demos and tutorials on the website. Just wondered if you guys had seen or heard anything about it? And if so, whats the general opinion? I'm kinda of the opinion that it looks too good to be true...so whats the 'gotcha'?

One of the biggest losses would be to our vacation system. Right now we can knock out an entire month of work with one week of vacation. With PBS, we would get one week of vacation. Bad deal!

I went to the roadshows on Pref Bidding at another airline, and we were sold on it, and voted it in. The reality the ensued was not in line with what was presented during the roadshows. Didn't matter too much to those who presented all the glory of PBS, because they were in the top 5%, and it worked out very well for them... for the rest of the crew force, the reality of PBS sucked BIG time. Vacation (not as good as FDX), was impacted in ways in which the union never even considered. By then it was too late, PBS was part of the contract, and the old school line-bidding became one more thing we would have re-negotiate to get back (while giving up something in return).

Just my perspective...

That's how it is for us right now at XJT. But with our phase 2 aka reserve bidding, 1 week of vacation means one week of vacation. Right now, I think the Union is trying to confine it to only the relieve and reserve line bidding.

Yeah, I've heard this bed time story before. And often seems like it turns into a nightmare for all involved. That's why I'm trying to find out more from guys that have lived it. Assuming this is coming, what would you do differently? Example: For us, vacation touching is a huge thing (turn 1 week of vacation into 3 or 4 if you bid right). I think if we do this PBS thing, the computer build shouldn't know anything about your vacation until AFTER it builds your line. Then you can bid just like you would with a line, looking for trips that do touch your vacation with lots of days off around to maximize days off. Just one example.

Just to add to the discussion... Flight Attendants at my previous airline also had line-bidding and the top 5% most senior FA's presented Pref Bidding as a great scheduling tool. FA's voted it in, pilots did not. Previous to that all pilots and FA's enjoyed relatively decent schedules, from the most senior to the most junior. After the FA's went to Pref Bidding, the difference in schedules was mind-numbing, not kidding. They wished they hadn't, wished they had understood it better, etc... Too late.