8.19.15 – (LUS) – PBS Award Delay, Training Bidding System (TBS) Change, Tip for Bidding VEX days, Understanding Your PBS Award, DCA Co-Terminal Award

Wednesday, August 19, 2015 – LUS

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JIRC Weekly Update

• PBS Award Delay 
• Training Bidding System (TBS) Change 
• Tip for Bidding VEX days
• Understanding Your PBS Award
• DCA Co-Terminal Award

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PBS Award Delay

There was an issue in the processing of the PBS September award that caused the processing to be restarted which in turn caused the award to be posted in PBS roughly an hour later than normal.

Out of the first 7 months of bidding, this is only the second time the award was delayed in being posted. The frustration is understandable and the delay will be fully investigated to ensure that it does not happen in the future.

Training Bidding System (TBS) Standing Bid Preference: Allow Early Award

Each month since we went “live”, we have encountered issues with people who did not remember selecting the “Allow Early Award” option in their TBS Standing Bid.

The Allow Early Award is an option that allows TBS to award CQ Training a month early depending on the class space available. For example, if June is your month that you must attend CQ, the selection of the Allow Early Award option would let TBS award you recurrent in May if there was class space open.

Because this has been an issue each month and the issues occur with people who do not remember ever selecting this option, the JIRC made the request that every Allow Early Award box be unchecked for everyone across the board. This action does not affect any other preferences in the Standing Bid and if you prefer to go through CQ Training a month early, it is a simple process to go back into TBS and re-check the box.

The steps to re-enter this option if you so chose are:

1.    Log into the Crewportal.
2.    Select Training Bidding from the Bids/trades/claims tab.
3.    Select the Standing Bid tab in TBS.
4.    Click the box next to Allow Early Award to select that option.

In summary, the Allow Early Award option has been de-selected for every single LUS Flight Attendant to prevent unintended award of CQ Training a month before your required training month.

If you did intend for that option to be selected, you must re-enter it in your TBS Standing Bid Preferences. 

Tip for Requesting VEX Days 

In the event that you have Vacation in the first week of a bid month and you would like to have VEX days on any of the first 7 days of the month, you may want to submit your request for those VEX days in the VEX window for the preceding bid month’s VEX submission window. This will prevent you from being awarded a carry-over trip that touches a day that you wanted as a VEX day. You can still add VEX days during the normal monthly window, however once a trip is awarded you cannot use a VEX day to drop that trip. 

For example:

Vacation is 05NOV to 11NOV.  Flight Attendant wants VEX days 01NOV-04NOV. Submit the VEX request between 19AUG to 31AUG (VEX Submission window for October bidding).

Understanding Your PBS Reason Report

Make sure to look at your Reason Report in the Award Tab. This is the best place to start when trying to understand why you were awarded particular pairings.

Here are some common Reasons you did not get what you requested:

“Replaced/not-awarded to achieve line value MIN 95:00 MAX 110:00.”

This does not mean you were awarded a specific Pairing and then it was taken away. It means that PBS added up what all Pairings in a specific Layer and the following layers were worth and could not get to your preferred or required Target Credit Range. PBS then, awarded what it could and moved on to the next Layer/s. 

“24 in 7 violation”

Must have 24 hours rest in Domicile, unless waived. A long layover will only be counted as your rest to maintain the FAA legalities of a maximum of working 6 days before 24hrs rest in domicile must occur, if you “Waive 24hr rest in domicile”. 

“Exceeded max_blk in 7 days”

Must not go over 35 hours in 7 days, unless waived. Remember that the 7 days is a rolling 7-day calendar. Start at the last day of a trip and including that day count backwards 7 days. If there is more than 35hrs in any 7 day period, the “Waive 35hrs in 7 days” must be used for PBS to be allowed to award those trips.

DCA: Co-Terminal Pairing Award

The PBS logic allows the awarding of pairings from both IAD and DCA domiciles in the same award if a calendar day exists between the respective report times at each airport unless the waiver is included in the bid. What this means is if you did not bid pairings at both airports, you may still be assigned both IAD and DCA pairings due to seniority or necessary coverage. 

If you would like to make sure that you are not awarded any co-terminal pairings, you can include the Co-Terminal Airport Pairing Property-DCA in all layers of your bid to prevent PBS from considering the IAD pairings.

Being Added to the Facebook Page

If you have not been added to the Tips from the JIRC Facebook page and would like to be, please email [email protected] with the Subject Line “Add to Facebook” and we will send you an invitation.

Revision – Wrong Date

This was in the August 12th Weekly Update:

For Reserves, September 1st is a Saturday so keep in mind that there may be legality reasons for Reserves who are on call the last days of August that force them to be Off the first weekend. Even Senior Reserves should be careful with requesting the first weekend as “Must Offs” in all layers because forced legalities may not allow that weekend to be awarded.

September 1st is a Tuesday not Saturday. We apologize for any confusion this caused. 

In Solidarity,

Laura Albert – PHL and DCA
Scott Barnes – PHX and the FARC (Flight Attendant Resource Center)
Emily Arner-Brown – CLT

About the JIRC:
The Joint Implementation Resolution Committee (JIRC) is a committee that was created by the current contract (the Redbook) to oversee the implementation of PBS.