6.15.16 – (LUS) – PBS Bidding Reminders

     

 

PBS Bidding Reminders – LUS

PBS bidding for the July 2016 bid month closes tomorrow at 12:00 PM (EDT) / 9:00 AM (MST). Below are a few reminders when completing your PBS bid. More PBS bidding guidelines can be found in the Crew Portal Guide available on Wings.

Avoid Reserve

Using Avoid Reserve is only recommended for Flight Attendants who are on the cusp of holding a Line and being on Reserve. Using Avoid Reserve automatically adds the following Line Properties:

The “Avoid Reserve” should only be used by itself in a layer. The layer containing “Avoid Reserve” should be free of all other properties including days off on the calendar. Avoid Reserve in a layer will not change the numbers displayed in the Total Pairings or Pairings by Layer columns in the Layer Tab.

Buddy With

The Buddy Bid option enables a Flight Attendant to Buddy Bid with other Flight Attendants up to the number of positions on the Pairing. PBS places all Flight Attendants in the Buddy Bid just below the Seniority of the most junior Flight Attendant in the Buddy Bid.

1. The Initiator of the Buddy Bid will bid for all the other Buddies utilizing all 7 Layers.
2. The follower(s) must Bid all 7 Layers. The first layer will be the buddy request and the following layers will be a back-up bid, in case the Buddy Bid is not able to be honored.
3. The fewer restrictions used; the greater chance of being awarded an entire Line together.
4. Buddy bidding works best when all buddies have similar pre-assignments, i.e. same vacation, similar carry-over time, etc…
5. The follower will have a Target Credit Range set from the minimum required at their seniority up to 90. If the Initiator designates a Target Credit Range above 90 hours and the Follower would like the same, they must include a Target Credit Range in Layer 1 with the Buddy Bid to bid for the higher Target Credit Range.
6. There are two statuses that will appear under the Line Tab for each Buddy Bidder: a. Accepted b. Pending
7. Upon bid closing, any Buddy who did not accept the Buddy Bid request will not be part of the group.
8. Each Flight Attendant can only be in one Buddy Bid group.
9. PBS will process the group’s Prefer Position Order from most senior to junior within the group

Example 1 – Accepting/Denying: Seniority #10, #20, and #30 wish to buddy bid in a group and elect #10 to be the Initiator. #10 would add #20 and #30 into the Buddy with bid; #20 and #30 will receive a notification to accept. Once both Flight Attendants accept the Buddy With request, they will be processed as a group.

Example 2 – Position: Seniority #20 is the Initiator and bids position order FB, FA, FC. PBS will award seniority #20 FB position, seniority #10 FA and seniority #30 FC. If seniority #20 bid position order is FA, FB, FC, then #20 would be awarded FA.

Example 3 – Partial Line Together: Seniority #10 is the group Initiator and wishes to be in a group with number #20 and #30. The optimizer will take the bid of #10 and use it as the group bid. It will award #10 first at #28 seniority level. Then it will award #20 at the next seniority. It will try to build a complete Line based on the group bids. If PBS runs out of group Pairings to complete the Line, it will reprocess #10’s bids to fill the remainder of the Line with Pairings from #10’s subsequent Layers.

On Date Preferences and Red Eye/ODAN Pairings

Bidding an On Date Property (Preference) will not put Red Eye’s or ODAN’s into your pairing pools.  

Examples of On Date Properties:

Both Red Eye’s and ODAN’s must be bid by using Prefer Pairing Type Red Eye, Prefer Pairing Type ODAN or by using Pairing ID (which is the Specific Pairing number).

Reserve Must-Off Days

1. A Must-Off day(s) may be bid at any seniority level. Use the Reserve Calendar to determine likelihood of being awarded the requested day(s) off.

2. PBS must be able to satisfy ALL Must-Off days in order to award from that layer.

3. The first reserve layer should contain the most desired days off.

• Use the pyramid concept when bidding reserve lines. Relax each subsequent reserve Layer by changing less desired days off from Must Off to Prefer Off

4. Bidding more than 11 Must Off days in a Layer will void that Layer, and PBS will move to the next Layer.

5. Per the contract, 8 days per month will be awarded as Golden Days and 3 days per month will be awarded as Moveable Days.

6. There are 3 factors determining how Golden Days are awarded:

• Daily and total Reserve staffing requirements
• Contractual Reserve patterns
• Seniority

Note: A Lineholder bidding Reserve with a Must Off in every Reserve Layer that cannot be honored will be awarded a regular line.

Reserve Prefer-Off Days

1. A Prefer-Off day does not set any conditions for being awarded a Reserve Line.

2. Prefer-Off days are similar to a Day Off wish list.

3. PBS will award all, some, or NONE of the Prefer-Off days requested.

4. A Layer with combined Must Off and Prefer Off days can be awarded as long as ALL Must-Off days can be honored.

Target Credit Range

This Property enables a user to bid for a desired range of credit. Selecting the field will display two boxes in which the Minimum and Maximum credit range may be entered. The following are important points to note regarding the Target Credit Range function when bidding:

• PBS will build Lines between 70 and 90 hours as a default
• The minimum bid is 40 hours and the maximum bid is 110 however, all parameters and targeted Line average must be respected by PBS Target Credit Range is a cumulative property.

NOTE: If you use the same TCR range through all layers but PBS cannot award in that range, it may be forced to go outside your layers to use the default range. Once outside the last layer, your pairing and line properties may no longer be considered.