Quote:
Originally Posted by deltajuliet
Okay, well, while we got you, one more question I've always wondered. I understand they might run the monthly PBS awards several times using several parameters, but how long does each batch take to process? Do they really need til the 23rd sometimes, or could it all be realistically accomplished in 24-48 hours?
I deal with this question a lot on the base visits and just with people I fly with. And every one of them, once I explain the process, understands a whole lot more that it's not some grand conspiracy.
First, remember that when this window was negotiated that we had somewhere close to a dozen bases and that everyone (including the planners) was brand new to the software. The window was set that long to deal with the scale of bases and the learning curve.
Nowadays the learning curve is mostly gone (more on that below) and we're down to 4 bases. This is why you generally get your stuff on the 21st.
It’s the back end that most people don't realize. There's more than just the pilot contract to deal with here. PBS closes on the 17th at noon. At that point a last update of data gets loaded and final roster checks are completed. When all that's said and done some initial runs are started. Run lengths vary from just a few minutes to a few hours based on pairing quality and base size.
Flight attendant bidding closes at 10a on the 18th. Being paper bids the results have to be posted later that day and every single FA needs to be manually integrated along with having their vacation and training put onto schedules with the resulting trips removed and dealt with. As a result there is basically 0 PBS work done by the company from the 18th-about mid day on the 19th.
Once Captain runs are done, those runs have to be sent over to the training department to have IOE pulled. We have to wait for that data to come back before FO runs can be started.
When all the runs are done the data has to be loaded into CrewTrac and Flica and error checked.
If one were to condense down ACTUAL work time the average time spend on a single seat (all bases) is about a day to a day and a half. But there's a lot of down time were we wait for various other events that result in calendar days being much longer.
Keep in mind for years Mesa has had 1 full time planner (and at some points 0 full time planners) to do this work. As a result priorities had to be assigned to items that were contractually due first (i.e. FA line awards and integration). As of last month the company has hired 2 additional planners bring the total up to 3. Long term this will help out greatly on all things that get handled by the planning department. However it's a steep learning curve on all the software.
I'm actually out in PHX right now working with the new planners on PBS. As far as number of runs, I would say I average about 6-8 runs per base/seat a month. Some more some less depending on how well it works.
TLDR: No it doesn't need until the 23rd. No it can't be done in 24 hours.