Only for the new BES’s. you would be Able to bid any position in any of the new bases regardless of any freeze. The freeze would still be in effect for any current BES.

the what?

filler

Base
Equipment
Seat

Seat lock is lifted to bid into something that didn’t exist before

Believe we refer to them as categories now.

Point is, you have to be awarded the new category/BES, etc. to get out of your lock. The existence of it alone does not free you from your seat lock. You can, however bid into the new category, then lateral out.

Ex: New hire is awarded SFO 777 FO in training. MCO base opens & said new hire bids & is awarded MCO 737 FO. The following vacancy, the same new hire lateral bids to ORD 737 FO. The end result is a transition (SFO 777 FO > ORD 737 FO) which would not have been possible under his present seat lock; although it requires “passing through” the new BES.

I’ll go with MCO on 12/1 for $1.

If you bid new bes but can’t hold it does the unlock opportunity persist in future bids or only the opening bid?

The category is considered “new” for all vacancies with advertised effective dates within 6 months of the original vacancy. The lock release applies to any such vacancies; though the company is under no obligations to time vacancies under that consideration.

Change the WB stripes to have two black stripes between every gold one.

They have been called categories for about 10 years. Some CAL pilots still call them BES because thats what they were called at CAL. I always wondered why they were called BES at CAL, despite CCS showing them as Base, Equipment and Position. Why not call them BEP? In any case, they are Categories now.