5.23.18 – (LAA) – Why Does It Take So Long for Bid Results to Post?

Why Does It Take So Long for Bid Results to Post? – LAA
 

I was able to sit in on the bid run again this month, and I would like to update the membership on the additional processes that result in bid awards taking longer to be posted.

The initial run does not account for the number of relief (RL) and replacement (RP) lines that will bust, so the Planners must first run the award process to determine the number of Flight Attendants needed to fill all lines of flying. Additional Flight Attendants are added to the line holder headcount from the reserve pool, and the number of reserve lines must be reduced to make the headcounts match. They add the Flight Attendants who bid onto reserve first, and then pull off any required speakers. If additional line holders are needed, they honor bid off requests and then remove Flight Attendants from the bottom seniority of the reserve pool. Once the head count equals the number of lines, they run the bid awards.

This run awards all lines of flying as well as RL and RP lines. Next,  the RL line construction program is run. This program shows the number of RL lines that have been built over and under 65 hours. Those under 65 hours are deleted, and the Flight Attendants awarded these busted lines are added back into the bid pool.

Next, they run the RL lines again to see if any more RL lines can be built. In a perfect world, the answer is no. They then run the RP line building program. The number of RP lines is generally the number of busted RL lines. The program builds all possible RP lines. Again, lines that are under 65 hours are busted. The number of busted lines are the number of Flight Attendants who must be added back to the reserve pool. They start by adding back the Flight Attendants who were forced off, then the Flight Attendants who bid off. After that, they pull from the back up list. Sometimes, a purser speaker will be on vacation and there isn’t a purser speaker available to hold the RL line. Other times, it is a Flight Attendant who held the RL line that was put back onto reserve, so the process must be started again.

The programmer monitors the process and, after the runs are completed, reviews the results again for all bases to ensure there were no programming errors. She checks speaker lines and ensures qualifications are updated, Flight Attendants on vacation were not awarded an RP line, satellite bases were not assigned etc… This all must be done manually.

On day 2, the Planners begin reviewing any issues the programmer found and they run again if necessary. If all goes well, the program is run one more time to ensure it cannot build an additional RL or RP line. After that is completed, phase one awards can be uploaded.

Renee Mayer
APFA National Scheduling Chair
[email protected]