Understanding PBS helps but there's a limit as to how much it can help someone junior. When I was new I used to fly with the RSR and one of the guys who worked the PBS helpline all the time. Both would show me their bids and look at my bids and give me suggestions every month. I eventually started getting better lines than people who were somewhat senior to me. I still didn't get good lines though, just better than lines I should have gotten.

Now that we're going into a time where staffing is an issue and block hours are high I don't think there's any way to bid lower credit. After you posted about having 2 years seniority and getting 85 hours I looked at my Required Minimum Line Credit from last month and it was 89 hours. There was no way PBS could have even given me a line with 85 hours and 15 days off.

 

How much could one expect to credit shooting for 12 or 13 days off?

 

Also depends on the base. I'm guessing you're in Chicago, Minnie, or Denver? Lots of short legs and low credit trips there. You can choose to not believe me, but that's what I've been getting the past couple months.

 

How do you guys define good vs. bad trips? Is it the ratio of TAFB divided by credit hours? So for example, a trip with a TAFB of 80 hours with a credit of 16 hours would be bad, whereas a trip with a TAFB of 80 hours with a credit of 30 hours would be good? Or am I dramatically oversimplifying?

I guess there are other factors that go into it...like in December, I'd probably take a lower-credit trip to San Diego as opposed to a higher-credit trip to Calgary...

Anyhow, would just be curious to learn about how you judge the 'quality' of a trip beyond the very simple metric of TAFB/Credit hours.

 

A "normal" trip would credit about 5 hours per day on average. 4 day =20 hours. We sort of define a long TAFB 4 day trip as anything over 80 hours. I would say for a 4 day the following: 20 hours credit, 80 hours TAFB = average. If you credit more with less TAFB you are on a good trip. A very good 4 day would be 25 or 26 hours credit with 80 hours or less TAFB at Skywest. There are some very bad trips such as 18-20 hours credit for 90 hours TAFB. Does that sound about right to everyone?

 

You're kind of right in your assumption that there are a lot of ways to define what a good trip is since everyone wants something different. The one general thing that's constant is that a trip that allows you more credit for less time away from base is a better trip. You can have someone senior who holds four 25 hour 4 days per month and someone junior who gets assigned four 16 hour 4 days per month. The senior person could work the same number of days as the junior person yet get paid 36 hours more for doing so. That's a huge amount of money.

A lot of people are commuters and think of a good trip as being a commutable trip. I might for instance bid a bunch lower credit trips in layer 1 that are commutable because a lot of the really high credit trips aren't commutable on both ends. If I can avoid paying for a hotel room, or get home a day earlier bidding lower credit is worth it. People who live in base wouldn't have to deal with that.

Some people also just like to bid or avoid bidding certain overnights. Places like MIA, LGB, LAS, PHX, AUS go more senior than you'd expect even when they're part of really bad trips. I've flown with a few people who have family members in certain overnights so they bid worse trips just to overnight there.

A 'good trip' is different for everyone but in general more pay for less time away from home is what makes a good trip.

 

Hey all

Just got offered an interview with SKW was curious if LAX or ORD are realistic bases out of training???

Thanks!

 

There's about a 100% chance you'll hold ORD out of training. LAX is a little hit or miss. It hasn't been unheard of recently for new hires to get it but you may want to plan on not getting it for a few months. It shouldn't take long.

 

Very interesting, thank you. Makes perfect sense. How do the bids work? Is there simply an open period with a deadline, i.e. by X time on X date, all bids must be in, and then the computer assigns you your trips by seniority?

 

Wondering if anyone is doing an SFO-ORD commute. Given those are both United hubs, and that weather in both SFO and ORD can lead to all kinds of delays, would you define that as "a commute from h*ll" or is it not so bad?