9.11.19 – PBS: Reserve Bidding

Wednesday, September 11, 2019

For bidding reserve off days, you start by clicking on the Reserve Tab on the navigation bar. The large calendar on the left side will show the number of reserves which are needed each day according to planning’s calculation.If you accidentally bid for reserve days off while under any other tab, your reserve days off bid will not be processed.

PBS allows you to build your reserve line by requesting your most important days off first and build upon them while following contractual requirements:

• Reserves receive 12 days off per month
• No fewer than two (2) and no more than eight (8) days off
• No fewer than three (3) and no more than six (6) days on
• Additionally, PBS will look back at the last 6 days of your previous month to avoid a seven-day legality (24/7)
• Legal flex day placement should also be considered when calculating legal patterns
• There are no longer separate daily reserve counts for speakers. All reserves awards will be processed in seniority order.

How does PBS process your bid?

When PBS reaches your seniority, before even processing your bid, it creates all legal, possible solutions (reserve patterns) that you could be awarded. The system considers all planned absences, carry-over days, the last 6 days from the previous month, and all coverage needed days (CN) at your seniority.

Prioritize which days off are most important to you and bid those days off in the first few layers. All days off in a single layer are considered equal so it is best to start small and with the most important first.

During the award process, PBS will continue awarding the days off you can hold layer by layer, as long as the combination makes a legal pattern (see above rules). At each layer, the system eliminates the possible solutions that don’t meet the criteria of the award that is being built until finally arriving at a legal solution.

Example:
Suzie is looking for several specific days off:  the 4^th, 10^th, 11^th, 12th, 19th, 20^th and 30^th.

PBS will start out with all the patterns Suzie is legal for.

Suzie has a 3-day trip at the end of the previous month. PBS would only select Reserve patterns that have days off at the beginning of the month and patterns that start with 3 days of reserve. Remember, a minimum of 3 days on reserve are required, but any reserve line that would start with 4 days or more would create a 7-day legality and therefore are not considered based on this example.

The most important day off for Suzie is the 4^th; she bids this day in layer 1.
Next, she bids the 11^th, 12^th and 20^th in layer 2.
In layer 3 has the 10^th, 19^th and 30^th.
PBS reads the requests in Layer 1. It now looks at all the lines that are available and selects all patterns that have the 4^th off. It would keep these patterns in her pool and discard all others, then move on to layer 2.

From layer 2 PBS is able to award the 11^th and 12^th or the 20^th, but not all 3 days, since all are of equal importance, the goal is to award as many days off from each layer as possible, PBS would award the 11^th and 12^th.
Now all patterns that have the 4^th, 11^th and 12^th remain in the pool and all others are discarded.

From layer 3 PBS can award the 10^th and 19^th or the 30^th. Once again, the goal is to award the most days from each layer. Suzie will be awarded the 10^th and 19^th. Again, PBS would keep only those patterns in the pool that have the days already awarded. In Suzie’s case the 4^th, 11^th, 12^th,10^th and 19^th.

Note: All days off requested and awarded are cumulative. If you bid for days off in a layer there is no need to continue to bid for the same days off in subsequent layers.

PBS continues this process layer by layer until a complete reserve pattern can be awarded.

The important thing to remember is to start out with those days that are the most important to you. If Suzie would have requested all the above days in layer 1, PBS sees all days as equal and her award could have excluded the 4^th, which was the most important day off to her.

Make use of those 7 layers to stagger your requests in order of importance.  Realize, that your requests can set a pattern. For example, if you request single days off and it can be awarded to you, the day before or after will have to be a day off as well since the minimum is two days off.

Use the calendar in PBS and count out the days in-between and around your days off to not block your requests by asking for infeasible patterns. Also, it is important to remember the system is awarding based on legal flex day placement.  And as always, bid to your seniority and make use of available resources.

Who should bid as a lineholder and reserve?

In PBS you can bid 7 layers as a lineholder and 7 layers as reserve. The question that many have is why would I want and/or need to bid both as a lineholder and a reserve?

When PBS opens you will see your status on your PBS dashboard. While the Lineholder Reserve Designator (LRD) will process who will be a lineholder or reserve, at the close of PBS bidding and prior to processing your status may change.

If you were in either the tentative or reserve grouping who toggled to Pref LH and could not hold lineholder status you would be the first (in seniority order) to move to lineholder status. Immediately prior to the close of PBS bidding, there are often a small number of Flight Attendants who become unavailable for various reasons (medical leave, etc.) which would create lineholder openings.

The following is the priority order of reserves that would be moved to lineholder status.

1. Tentative Flight Attendants who were involuntarily moved to reserve status.
2. Reserve Flight Attendants who toggled to Pref LH in LRD who were unable to hold lineholder status in LRD.
3. Most junior reserve Flight Attendants involuntarily moved to lineholder status after all the above been utilized.

In Unity,

APFA JSIC

Alin Boswell
Julie Hedrick
Linda Haertling
Vicki Balistreri