If I may be the devil's advocate: if you're #1 in base and you don't get what you want, it's not the software's fault. You can blame the company for not properly training you (true), and you can blame the vendor for not providing good documentation (true), but if you actually code in a legal line of specific pairings, there's no reason why #1 shouldn't get exactly what he or she wants.

Again AOS PBS looks at global need and then seniority.

There have been, and will continue to be trips awarded to someone junior because it fills out their line above a senior bidded trip.

But you are right, it's not the software's fault. It's exactly the way SkyWest wants it because it saves them money.

I have friends at an airline formerly known as colgan that talk about this "globalization" as well as pinnacle isn't staffed properly. Would better staffing help out PBS? As in the company/scheduling committee could tweak parameters in a favorable way due to much better staffing? This will be my first time using this pbs stuff just curious how it works. I keep hearing is only as good as your work rules.

I've used the SkyWest PBS and the PBS at the airline I was furloughed from prior to SkyWest. I also had the miss pleasure of working hard lines at that employer too. Here are my thoughts:

1) Every PBS places the company needs above the pilot needs. The primary point of PBS is to staff the available flying and if possible take into account the pilot's request. You need to understand its job is to staff the flying at all costs.
2) I was very junior when I went from hard lines to PBS. PBS improved my quality of life most areas. PBS provides flexibility that hard lines do not such as specific days off. I might need every Wednesday off but there would be very few if any hard lines with all Wednesdays off. Even as a junior guy I could usually get them with pbs. Now if I'd asked for Saturdays off I wouldn't have gotten them. PBS did on average give me more days off per month.
3) Hard lines do benefit vacation though. If your pairing touches your vacation you would get that trip dropped.
4) PBS allows more flexibility and also introduced more flexible trip trading.
5) The SkyWest PBS software is much less user friendly and generally not as effective as the one used in my old company. I don't remember the vendor for sure but I think it was a sabre product.
6) Both PBS's worked a similar way when it comes to coverage days. They will flag days as needing coverage and start assigning trips. The difference is the SkyWest system can assign senior guys coverage days then by the time it gets to the last few bidders it may have filled them so the junior guy might get it off. There are so many variables so it is hard to tell if seniority was violated. The other PBS seemed to go to the end of the list and work backwards to fill coverage days. I was never as suspicious as iam of the SkyWest PBS software.
7) Your PBS line is very dependent on staffing. The first company was very understaffed and I pretty much worked 90 hours with 11 days off every month for 2 years. Staffing at SkyWest is much better and I'm more senior in base but even when I was junior I could stay down to 80 hours with around 14 days off. Again this is also very dependent on the pairing construction.
8) Understanding the software logic is key to finding the best quality of life you can hold at your seniority.

On the while pbs is better than hard lines. However if I could switch PBS vendors from the current SkyWest vendor I'd do it in a heart beat.

I hope this helps.

Airfix

May schedules came out. I bid weekends off and also allowed trips that started in the afternoon on sunday to work around my daughter's softball schedule. I bid 69%. I was awarded 98:45 credit, 11 days off (I thought our min was 12 for lineholders). For the most part I got what I wanted, EXCEPT I have a CN pairing at the beginning of the month covering the first weekend and I have an 8:00 2 day trip that was CN'd on me over another weekend. The reason report says 89 hours min credit required. If you take off that 8 hour 2 day I'm still above the min credit, so basically they junior manned me on a crappy 2 day but don't have to pay extra for it.

I got 99:48 credit assigned with 11 days off. My line completed in layer 3 with all pairings I generally wanted but it could have completed over the minimum with one less pairing too. I've never been assigned so much credit or 11 days off before.

PBS is FIRST and FOREMOST a staffing solution. Staffing doesn't really help the PBS software, it simply dictates what the software does during the sort/solution with the freedoms and constraints it has.

^^^^^This right here is key. If I'm not mistaken, the ONLY airline where the pilots had the majority if not ALL the control of the solution was TWA. Just about anywhere else, the company has too much overriding authority.

That one is dependent on work rules, it's independent of PBS. There are some airlines (like the SKW of old under line bid) where there was no vacation touch/drop. The pairing would be built right up to the vacation with either release or a DH back to domicile on the front end. If it touched on the back end, it was either modified to originate the day after vacation or dead head you into position to resume the trip.

Whereas the CRJ of XJT's PBS system, the "vacation low" option can grant MORE time off than with a line bid vacation conflict/trip touching. Back to the point of "it's all about the work rules.

That one can depend. If the software is set to a "solve to ZERO" parameter that means less trips in open time. IE; inflexible trip trading as there isn't much to trade for.

Poolie question: do they teach the bidding system in initial training? It sounds like it takes a doctorate to even figure out how to bid each month

They might briefly go over it. There is a user manual online for PBS. You will probably learn it by trial and error. 9+ years for me and I still get hit with something I didn't know about every now and then.

88 credit, 14 off.
I bid mid 30%, usually trips, usually finished in layer 1-2.
I would never want to go back to flying lines built by CS. PBS benefits far out way the few areas where lines can trump (vac).
The AOS software is not user friendly and only vaguely explained in training material. If you don't know what priority it places on parameters you can wipe out your entire bid. If you give it an out on your last layer don't be surprised if it uses it!!
Tribal knowledge prevails.