Hey guys I've only been bidding for a few months but I have a question. I essentially waived everything I possibly could for April and did not get a line. A guy who is 5 or 6 numbers junior to me got the last line however. I'm just wondering how this is possible. I put every possible trip in my pool and waived everything. I could understand if I still didn't get a line after doing this, however I don't understand how someone six numbers below me got one. Just trying to figure out this system (as I'm sure everyone is). The guy that got the line is just off IOE. I didn't think we did OE lines anymore (I only have about 40 hours in type and haven't gotten one). Can anyone shed some light? Thanks.

 

The simple answer is that you are BELOW the G-line. You are not guaranteed a line.

I know it is infuriating to see a junior pilot receive a line and you get reserve. The most likely case is that the junior pilot had some type of credit already on their line (vacation, training, carry in) that made it easier to construct a legal line with the remaining trips available. Most likely, those same trips would not build you a legal line. You can always file a PBS dispute but your cards have already been dealt. Sometimes you win, most likely you will lose (but you get some cockamamie excuse as to why you couldn't get a line). All of this is perfectly allowed under the UPA.

Once you are ABOVE the G-line you are guaranteed a line. No need to waive anything (it could help, it could hurt also).

 

Looking at that individuals line it appears that they have 11:12hrs of non fly credit. Probably from the IOE days. This means that the 83 hr line they got was only 72hrs of awarded credit.

You would have to look at what the credit range was for the EWR 320 fleet but my guess is that it is slightly north of 72 hours. For this reason the line would have been illegal to award you.

The PBS system awards credit and NOT flight time. So sometimes this will cause lines to go junior, when junior guys have union days or vacation or MLA.

 

Ok I think I get it. Thanks guys. Im not sour about it, just wanted to make sure I understood how it works!

 

I agree with all of the comments and advice so far...but will add this:

You can log on to prefbid.com and chat with live PBS helpers. If they can't answer your question, you can file a dispute through PBS. Good luck!

 

Ok i thought I was with you but now i'm lost again. Looking at my award report, there were 4 remaining when it got to me, which are the 4 trips that went to the more junior person. These trips equaled 72 hours exactly. There are several people with 72 hour lines and below (some are at 70). Again I had no restrictions on my bid. Every trip was in the pool. Again, im just trying to understand the system.

 

That's the painful part, it looks like it could be built for you. As others have mentioned, try prefbid, a PBS trainer in the crew room or just file a dispute. Either way, you will get an answer.

There is always some minute detail that would cause the line to fail for you while it works for someone junior. Seniority below the G-line means very little, above the G-line you are guaranteed a line.

 

Here is a situation like yours I have seen. A pilot, 1% below the G-line, waives everything and bids for a line. He has no planned absences, training, vacation, etc for the month. Six pilots junior to him got a line while he got reserve. Five of these guys had a training or vacation event, the sixth simply had a carry in.

Obviously there were plenty of trips to build this pilot a line. So not being able to hit the minimum credit time required was not the issue. The reason he didn't get a line had to do with overall reserve coverage needs. Since he had no absenses for the month, he could provide reserve coverage on days the other pilots could not because of their planned absences. So, PBS put him on reserve and gave the other 6 lines. It stinks, but that is the way it is. Sometimes you get penalized in a situation like this by going into the month with no obstacles that PBS has to work around.

Go ahead and file a dispute anyway. Don't be surprised if credit time or a legality is not the issue that the above is the problem.

 

Here's another reason a line award below the G-line can fail.

You have reserve days lined up until the last day of the previous bid period and the PBS software is only able to build a line with a trip that begins at the beginning of the subsequent bid period. PBS will view the reserve days (even long call) as duty and will deny an award due to FAR 117 constraints. Happened to me last month. Dispute it (drop down menu on the PBS bid page) and you should get an answer as to what happened. Then again, PBS may have made a mistake.

 

To continue the discussion lets just say he files a dispute and wins, what would that accomplish? They aren't going to take away that other guys line and give it to him. What could he get that would compensate for the error?