I'm just now starting to use Crew Companion. Most of it is self-explanatory, but I have two questions regarding trip pick-ups.

1. "37 hours LBT" What is LBT?

2. I used a criteria-set to pick-up a trip. Once a trip has been picked-up, should I delete the criteria, to prevent the system from trying to pick up another trip? Or, if the previous trip now covers the days in that criteria, and effectively removes the available days, does one just leave it?

I was going to delete the criteria-set or "trade request," but hesitated, as I wasn't sure if it would delete the trip I had picked-up.

Not sure about number 2 but would think if a trip is already picked up you would be denied any further pickups due to conflict. Also I believe LBT is local base time.

LBT is Local Base Time, as correctly mentioned above.

Have no fear of deleting criteria trade (or ANY trade) once you have been awarded it. If the ID is in your line, deleting the trade request won't touch it. User beware, this is UAL IT we are talking about. I ALWAYS take a screen shot of my line with the ID in it after ANY trade. I also always screen shot my Payrec before and after any trade.

As to whether the criteria trade disappears once it's been awarded, I'm not sure. I would SUSPECT that if the criteria trade was for a specific pairing or days and it executes, it won't be in play again. But if you put the criteria trade over a longer period of time my GUESS is that it will stay in there and award another ID that fits the criteria legally. So if you don't want it to execute again, I would delete it. But best to probably contact Tom at ETripTrader to make sure. He's awesome and will get you an answer FAST.

Good call, contacting Tom...will try that in the morning.

I had three specific trip bids, and two from a criteria base. I got one from the criteria, so the specifics were pointless. I deleted two; one disappeared on its own.

But the two broad-based criteria bids remained....hmmm. Hence this thread.

Yeah, I take frequent screenshots of pay records, and took one of the award, too!

In case anyone missed it on the subject of trading, this just came out:

The following report is from the System Schedule Committee's Crew Desk Subcommittee

On January 25, United and eTripTrader will roll out the functionality required for phase 4 of the Crew Companion settlement agreement. Both reserves and lineholders will be affected by these changes that will encompass the real time and aggressive pickup systems.

New Real Time Awarding Run
The phase 4 release will only affect trips that become available within the real time window (All trips departing today and after 1100LBT today, all trips departing tomorrow). All new trips or reserve assignments that come open in the real time window will immediately kick off a real time trip trade run that will consider all stored requests for that new assignment.
In addition, any new request that’s saved in the real time window to drop a trip will also start a real time run that will consider all stored requests for that new trip drop request. All trip drop requests in the real time window can now be requested as a drop without pay or a vacation drop when saved.

New trips or reserve SC/FSB assignments will not show up in open time until the real time run has been completed. If the new trip is not picked up during the real time system run, then it will go into open time and be visible to all pilots. After the trip goes into open time lineholders MUST use the Real Time Trip Trade System and reserves MUST use the Reserve Aggressive Pickup System to instantly pickup the trip. If the new reserve SC/FSB assignment is not awarded during the run, then reserve must use the Reserve Assignment Pickup System to pickup the assignment.

Example 1: Early in the month, a pilot saves a request in the Seniority Trip Trade System to pickup a specific 3-day trip later in that bid period and also selects to move that request to the Real Time Run. The requested trip becomes open the night before departure which is within the real time window. As soon as the trip becomes open the system will start a run that considers all stored requests to pickup that trip. If the pilot that requested the trip in our example has the earliest time stamp request for the trip and he’s legal for it, the system will award the trip before it shows up in open time.

Example 2: A lineholder stores a criteria request in the Seniority Trip Trade System to pickup any 2-day trip later in that bid period and also selects to move that request to the Real Time Run. Later in the bid month, within the real time window, another lineholder saves a request to drop his 2-day. When the lineholder saves the request to drop his trip the system will start a real time run and look for any lineholders that want to pickup the trip. If the first lineholder has the earliest time stamp request to pickup the trip, then it will award the drop and satisfy his criteria pickup request.

New Time Stamp Process
Phase 4 will also change how time stamps are attached to trade requests. This new process will better align the system to process requests in the real time window in a first come, first served order. Currently, the Seniority Trip Trade Interface opens on the 20th of every month at 1200LBT to allow trades to be stored for the next bid month and the seniority based runs for the following bid month start at 1500LBT on the 24th. Starting with the Phase 4 release, all trades stored during that window ([email protected] – [email protected]) that are selected to be considered in the real time runs will be given a time/date stamp of the [email protected] This window will allow all pilots an equal opportunity to get to their computers and save trade requests. Any trade saved after the [email protected] will get a time/date stamp at the actual time that the trade is saved. All real time runs will process in time/date stamp order and if any requests have the same time stamp then seniority will be the tiebreaker.

Important: Once a request is selected to be brought into the real time window, it will get a time/date stamp. If you try to modify that request and then save it again, the system will assign it a new time stamp based on when the request is resaved.

Summary

· Phase 4 will only effect trips and reserve assignments that come open during the real time window after the 1055 run.

· Every time a new trip or reserve SC/FSB assignment becomes available within the real time window a new real time run will immediately start that considers all requests for the new available trip or assignment.

· New trips and reserve SC/FSB assignments will not show up in open time and will not trigger an open paring alert to be sent until after the real time run is complete and only if nobody is awarded the trip or assignment during the run.

· If a trip is still open after the real time run is complete it will show up in open time and lineholders will have to use the Real Time Trip Trade System to instantly pickup the trip and reserves will have to use the Reserve Aggressive Pickup System to instantly pickup the trip. If a reserve SC/FSB assignment is still open, then reserves will have to use the Reserve Assignment Pickup System to instantly pickup the assignment.

· All real time runs will be processed in time stamp order.

· All requests for the following bid month that are selected to go into the real time runs and saved between the [email protected] and the [email protected] will get a time stamp of the [email protected]

· All requests that are selected to go into the real time window that are saved after the [email protected] through the end of the following bid month will be given a time stamp of the time they are actually saved.

· Any time a request that is selected to go into the real time run is resaved it will be given a new time stamp based on the time it’s resaved.

If you have further questions please call the company’s trip trade help desk at 1-800-323-xxxx, option 6 or go to the ALPA website and send a PDR to System Schedule à Trip Trade.

ALPA forgot to include Example 3

" · All requests for the following bid month that are selected to go into the real time runs and saved between the [email protected] and the [email protected] will get a time stamp of the [email protected] "

Example 3;

- 400 EWR CAs enter their requests between [email protected] and [email protected], therefore, all 400 of them get a time stamp of 24th/15:00:00.

Then, all 400 Captains are forced into a timestamp tie, and according to "All real time runs will process in time/date stamp order and if any requests have the same time stamp then seniority will be the tiebreaker." seniority is used to award all real time trips.

THIS IS NOT REAL TIME. IT IS A SENIORITY AWARDING SYSTEM. I am all for seniority in bid awards/pay/vac but this just destroyed any chance the bottom 85% of pilots in each base had for grabbing a good trip. All good trips will be picked up by the top 10-15% and leftover 3-4 day trips will be thrown into Real Time. This is a mistake that will have negative result on far more pilots than it benefits.

Call it ALL SENIORITY trading, not Real Time, which it is not. Being honest makes more sense than the vague explanation and omitting an example like mine.

IMHO is should always be seniority based, not who has the fastest finger and/or the best app.

I like instant gratification. It motivates me to keep an eye on open flying. I liked it when I was somewhat senior on the Shuttle and liked it when I was lower than a whale t$rd on the 400. Seniority is everything in this business but it was nice to have a carve-out for junior folks when we had it.

Wasn't everything submitted between the 20th and 24th done in seniority order already?