Maybe the 10 United bought will go to Expressjet. Hard to say. But I dont believe any of this will be new flying. Lately everything has been a this-for-that deal.

 

You'll get better guidance in the SAPA forums. Also you can call the help line during the bid process for help. They have always helped me out. Bid for trips you want. Even being junior, if no one else senior bids that specific pairing, it's yours. You may not get that 27 hour four day, but if you want to see your cousin in Des Moines you just might that trip.


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FWIW, when I was a fairly jr line holder I would bid EXTREMELY generally. Almost to the point of not even considering it a bid. I feel like I generally got a better schedule because of it. The trick is to the percentage of trips available to you by layer 7 to be greater than your bidding percentage.

As I rise up the seniority pole I've started bidding specific pairings in layer 1 and 2, and then general parameters in the other layers. Starting by being very restrictive, and gradually becoming less so.

 

You also have to learn how the PBS system works. There are some preferences that you put in there that seem to be "hard" preferences (for example, avoid landing at XYZ: This will eliminate ALL trips in that layer where there are any landings at XYZ in that trip). Others seem to be "soft" preferences, such as "max weekend days off." From what little I know, it seems like bidding that is like telling the PBS system "if you have the choice between two trips, give me the trip that gives me the most weekend days off."

First determine what you want to do with your bid. Do you want to hold commutable trips? Do you want to bid for credit? Do you want to bid specific overnights? etc.
Second, figure out how to do it. Talk to other crews, use SAPA forums, and call the PBS helpline.

The PBS helpline is most helpful when you have a specific issue. For example, I was putting in a parameter the other day in layer 5 or 6 that appeared to screw up everything else in my bid. I didn't get it so I called the PBS helpline and they explained it to me.

 

Think I will be paying you a visit in ORD to get some 'Bidding Goundschool lessons'

 

Soaking, next month between the 10th and 16th while you are sitting on a break or ready reserve in the crew lounge, ask someone to give you a five minute tutorial on how to bid. It doesn't have to be a pilot either, some of the FAs know their stuff.

Read the PBS users manual again if need be. You should know what the system defaults to as well, as well as how you can modify stuff.

You do not have to bid specific pairings unless you want to.

Before you are done with your bid, look at what parings you have in each layer.

Have low expectations on what your bid award will look like. It'll make life easier.

 

FWIW, everybody I've talked to that's a supposed PBS authority at the company (help line, SAPA forums) says this isn't true.

There really is no direct relation between your seniority percentage and the trips available percentage in PBS. Of course there is some correlation between the two, but there is not direct relationship. It's flawed logic to try to "match" your seniority percentage and the percentage of available parings. This is simply because your preferences could very well be the complete opposite of the next persons, ending up with completely different available pairing pools, but with the same exact percentage. You just don't know what other people's bidding preferences are. A crude example would be, I bid for 50% of the available parings, but you bid for the other 50%. We both bid 50% of the parings, but have completely different pools.

Again, this is simply what I've been told the the company PBS "experts".

With all that said, I agree that by layer 7 any person (especially Jr.) would want to have the highest percentage of available pairings available for PBS to choose from. The higher the percentage = casting a wider net.

 

This is correct. That thumbrule has no mathematical basis and is 100% dependent on what your seniors bid for. At a large base, the thumbrule might be a close enough approximation to be useful occasionally but past performance does not predict future success in this case. If things change (even temporarily, like the holiday season) people might not bid the same way they did last month.

At a small base, you're much better off asking around to get a sense for what your seniors will bid rather than using this thumbrule.

 

Yeah, from my experience unless you're super junior opening it up to even close to the same percentage of pairings as your seniority is overkill.

You have to be realistic. Especially when 90+ hours are being required, max credit is the name of the game. It's very possible to outbid your seniority if you do the legwork, many senior guys have no clue how it works/are not used to being assigned that many hours and still have not adjusted their bid accordingly.

The users guide is garbage but will teach you the basics, start asking CA's whats up. It'll be clear who knows what they're talking about and who doesn't.

 

Anybody care to shed some light on getting started at a new base in terms of accommodation setup etc.

So scenario is you complete all your training at Denver and are assigned ORD as a base.

You need an apartment as you have no family there, need a car there but also need the time to set yourself up plus any other teething issues.

As a new hire about to go through this I'm keen to hear what others did.

Thanks in advance.