No, a cookie would work just fine, oatmeal raisin please.

 

I was trying to help one of our FAs today with her bid... Or rather, help her understand it. She needed a specific day off, and bid for it in EVERY layer!! She also really wanted a specific pairing, and bid for that in 1-5 as well. So 1-5 were all the same 2% of pairings, and she "opened it up" for 6-7 by deselecting the desired pairing. Her entire month was garbage CNs, and despite my explaining why it happened she just couldn't understand it. She's been here longer than me!

 

Then you found five dollars?

 

And these are the people who complain all the time about how bad of a system it is. I'm no computer geek by any means but this system is not complex, yes it's not basic but it is simple if you have common sense and a brain.

 

Yes, please explain how I screwed myself...
Same bid as the past 5 months, every month has come out vastly different.

I don't bid hardly anything restrictive.
1: CDOs; 5h+ cdt/dp
2: locals, 2 days; 5h+ cdt/dp; 12hrs off between pairings
3: 3 days; 5h+ cdt/dp; try to finish at this layer; waive min cdt.; 12hrs off between pairings
4: 4 days; 5h+ cdt/dp; waive min cdt.; 12hrs off between pairings
5: CDOs, locals, 2 days (no restrictions)
6: 3days, 4 days (no restrictions)
7: no restrictions...

Also, by layer 4, 60%, and layer 5, 75% of all trips fit.
I bid 55%, so by no stretch should I have gotten PN trips all over my schedule.
And the PNs happen after the last layer awarded trip, which was a P5, so it had nothing to do with the layer 3 "try to finish"

Since I only bid by trip length and credit, with no other pairing properties selected. (no weekends off, trip mix, commutable blocks, days, nights, etc. None of that AT ALL)
So, I'm awfully curious how I restricted PBS' too much, or how the simple system was just too much for my lack of common sense or brain to handle.

Now tell me Mr. Expert, how I F'd myself.

Considering this is the same bid I've used for months, and can't get a single month to look similar to another. I haven't seen a PN in a year on my schedule. And only one or 2 CNs in the past year. Now the opposite.
I've been bidding with this POS PBS software for 3 years, and only 2x have I gotten such a POS schedule. One month, everyone was getting hosed. This month, as you assert, I screwed myself...

 

I take back what I said, my apologies. After talking with others I think PBS royally screwed up this month. They pulled the FA awards, I figure it's only a matter of time before they do ours as well.

 

Easy my friend, I understand the truth hurts but understand I'm not a self-proclaimed expert. I would love to help as would many others.

There is a possibility PBS made an error on a more senior pilots award creating an error in the pairings available to you in your pairing pool but you should still have been able to complete your solution without any PNs. Again, PNs mean you made the error. Without reading your “reason report” I’m thinking what happened is PBS could not create a solution with the pairing pool available to you by layer 3. You bid "try to finish by the layer" but only in layer 3, since your line wasn’t full of P/L1-3s it means it could not create a solution from the pairings that were available to you in those layers. So the computer retained what it awarded you in layers 1-3 but those pairings restricted PBS in later layers from creating a solution with what remained. In order words, for June, you were unable to hold a line full of what you're bidding for in layers 1-3 and those pairings conflicted with what you could hold in the following layers. In order to relax this restriction you need to bid “try to finish by this layer” in other layers as well as adjust your approach a bit.

If I could see your complete award with the reason report I could paint a clear picture but I’m certain this is what happened. You were somewhat stabbing at a line without understanding how the layers work together as they moved from start to completion of a solution.

 

I only have 8 days left at SkyWest until I resign my seat (congrats, you get to move up another number) so you'll need to find another expert to assist you with next months bid.

 

Airways, eh?

 

Sorry, but you answered your own question in the first two sentences. You can't. Repeat. CAN NOT. Bid the same way every month and expect repeat results. Differ pairing mixes, different credit values, Christmas on a Tuesday, someone senior to you moves to base... The variables are too significant. The program ain't perfect by any stretch, but a lot of people utterly fail to invest any time learning about how to use it and how to contain their expectations to reasonable levels.