4.13.18 – May Bidding Changes

Hello Miami! This blast addresses May bidding changes that you need to know.
 

May Bidding Changes

We know there are many monumental changes coming in the next year as we get to FOI, full JCBA and PBS and it can be very overwhelming. We have to take it step by step and stay educated. Transitioning to new processes and systems can be hard, but we will get through it. As in the past, we have committed to keep you informed.

Starting with the May bid month (in conjunction with bids in April), several items will be implemented that are very significant. We are opposed to the Company’s phased approach to implementing incomplete provisions, including pay protections and the elimination of available (AVBL) days. This, in turn, appreciably changes our Relief (RL) and Replacement (RP) bidding, ahead of the implementation of TTS.

Available (AVBL) days have served a useful purpose for us for many years and have long been part of our culture. The loss of them is going to potentially lead to more reserves. Our goal is to mitigate that result.

A Presidential Grievance was filed on April 5, 2018 on the phased-in Pay Protections and loss of Available Days. It is not going to stop the changes for May, so we need to prepare you to strategically bid this month and protect yourself from being an insufficient bidder.

As we transition to FOI, beginning in May, AVBL days will be discontinued. Vacation Relief (RL) lines will be required to be built to a minimum of 65 or more credit hours. As the bid is running, if a RL line cannot be built to 65 or more hours, it will be deleted or “busted.” The trips from the deleted reliefs will go into the open time pool that will be assigned through the rest of the award process. At the end of the process, RP lines will be created which also must be 65 or more hours.

What does all this mean? Our world today doesn’t work in tomorrow’s world. Several details will be new in May that you need to be aware of. Awarded Relief lines (RL) will be reduced due to the deletion of those lines. The number of “piggybacking” reliefs will naturally follow that reduction if the lines aren’t worth at least 65. We can’t predict the impact of that reduction. Domestic and International sequences can now be combined on Relief schedules.

*Phase 1 will take longer to run now.  When bids close on April 21^st, you may not get your award the first day. It might take a day or two to see your initial award. Bear in mind, the Company has a contractual date for bid finalization of April 26^th. We are certainly not used to that length of a bid process, but it is in the current Contract and has been for several decades.

Pointers for May bidding:

• Do not limit your bid to what you historically bid.
• Increase the number of lines you bid.
• Add remarks if you are bidding Relief (RL) or Replacement (RP) lines. No Pre-plot (NP) and Duty-free (DF) period requests will no longer be honored for RP remarks. *NP and DF were never an option for RL, only RP. (see chart below)
• If you are on the backup reserve list, be sure to put reserve bids on your ballot and back yourself up in case you are pulled onto reserve. Because of these changes they could go much deeper into the backup list than were used to.
• Be mindful of the reserve situation if you want to maintain your rotation.
• The more remarks, the better.
• Remarks are read in order they are input. Ensure they are input in order of preference.
• When bidding RP, be aware you may not hold this option.
• If you hold an RL line that is viable, they will try to build your schedule to 85 hours.
• If you have no remarks, the computer will assign you the highest time trips available.
• P-time will not be included in the 65 hours as it is not credit hours, only pay.
• Bid lots, lots, lots!

Remarks Codes:

We hope this has answered some of your questions and concerns. Until next time, fly safely.

In unity,