19hundo

Baffled at what? That me focusing on passing training was more important to me than learning how to bid? Like I said, now that I'm done with training and the fire hose is over, I've been asking captains questions and reading up on PBS. Yes it is my life I'm bidding on, but I had to earn that right first!

wrxpilot

He's just trying to help you...

Anyway, now that you have time I would suggest bidding like you want a line, and even put in some pairing/line properties. Don't bother with specific pairings right now, that's not helpful to the learning process (you're already doing something similar with your reserve line bid anyway). In layer 6, put Avoid reserve. Put your desired Reserve lines in L7.

Here's the important part - when bids come out, even if you just get reserve again, call the PBS helpline and review your bid. Tell them that you are junior, but trying to learn PBS. Ask them to review your bid and offer suggestions. You want to know exactly what you're doing when senior enough to hold a line.

When I was pretty junior, I was awarded better lines than people senior to me all the time since I took the effort to learn PBS by studying the manual and calling the help line each month after my bid was awarded. I can't tell you how many times I've seen even our pilots bid with no clue what they're doing (the FAs are definitely the worst at it though.).

19hundo

Awesome ill do that! Thanks for the suggestion!

Agentessa

Great advice, thanks for posting this, wrxpilot.

Ditto on calling the PBS helpline. I did it when I was a new hire and it cleared up a lot of questions. Those folks are really helpful and will take as much time as necessary to help you figure out the bidding system.

rcfd13

The FA I was just flying with was bidding 82% in domicile but was within the targeted lineholders and was really upset about getting reserve for May. I asked to look at her bid and in layer 7 she only had 18% of the total pairings selected. She claimed the help line told her to bid that way...

I'm not sure what people are thinking with their bids sometimes. Learning a little bit about PBS goes a long way if people senior to you are bidding that bad.

wrxpilot

I'm not surprised, and I'm sure she thinks the help line told her to bid that way (of course there's no way they'd suggest such idiocy).

I know a FA that is one of the top 3 in base, and ALWAYS gets PNs and CNs. I've tried to help, but it falls on deaf ears. Oh well, not my problem.

telejet

What are PN's and CN's?

wrxpilot

It means you got Owned by PBS!

Typically it means you did not bid accurately, and extra stuff had to be added to your bid that you didn't ask for.

rcfd13

PN = Pairing awarded that was not in any layer. On the bid award you'll see P1, P2 etc. Those are pairing awarded that you bid in layer 1 or layer 2. PN means PBS went all the way through your 7 layers and couldn't complete your line so it had to award you something that you didn't bid for. A PN means you screwed up your bid. PBS can't 'screw you' into a PN. You messed it up yourself by making your bid too restrictive for your seniority.

CN = Coverage date pairing awarded that you didn't bid in any layer. If PBS has 20 pairings to award that start on May 1st, there are 40 lineholders in your domicile, and 20 people senior to you bid for May 1st off it will force you to work on May 1st as a coverage date because it needs the remaining 20 lineholders to cover the 20 pairings. You can potentially bid correctly and still get one of these because coverage dates aren't known before you bid. If you want to reduce CNs then make sure your layer 7 is broad enough to allow just about every pairing. It will then in theory award you something you actually bid for that starts on May 1st instead of going to a CN. Once PBS goes outside of layer 7 it can tack whatever it wants onto your line.

Even bidding 75% in domicile I've never had a PN and I've only had a CN one time for a standup because I didn't allow standups in layer 7.

saxman66

For May, in ORD, the break down is about 65% -200 and about 35% is -700/900. As FO's you won't for sure get a 900 checkout. I only flew a -700 trip for OE and they called it good. A month or two later I was given a 900 trip and I just told my captain that it was my first 900 flight ever. It's the same as the 700 but weighs a lot more and flares slightly different.