Whoopsmybad

I was speaking in terms of a line pilot, not ALPA.

fishforfun

Exactly. Tied to the phone putting in preferences. Accepting and declining ARCOS. Watching open time….like I said, work.

captkdobbs

Some have actually figured out, within the limits of your seniority, how to bid a PBS line that is acceptable. If you 'work' the PBS bid each month, tweeking the way you request something, or the order of the requests, you can get a tolerable schedule either as a commuter or driver. Do one or two days of 'PBS work', look at your schedule for issues and then fly your line, rinse, repeat until you want some change.

Caviate: this is NOT the way to make bank! But if you are satisfied with the airplane you fly, the destinations to which you fly, and your paycheck at the end of it all, this is the best paying hobby I can imagine.

ohaiyo

I'm new here. Why would this be good?

crewdawg

Lots of really good trips pop into opent time within 2 days. Trips that are way better than any bid packet trip. Stuff like fly one leg in the evening and dh home early in the am. Being able to swap into that trip was a nice QOL enhancer. At the very least, it would have been nice to have swaps be applied all the way until a day prior, before being sent to a reserve.

tennisguru

One way to get out of crappy trips later in the month is a worse-day swap with a close in trip. Traditionally, reserve coverage is the worst 2-3 days out. Say you have a crappy 4 day trip a week or two out where the days are all negative on the reserve grid, say by a total of -20. Then two days from now a sweet, easy 2 day pops up, and both those days combined are -22. If that 2 day had to go through a PCS run then pilots would be able to swap those farther out crappy trips for the easy close in ones. Most broken trips don't pop up 3 or more days out. So with second day coverage now in effect as soon as a second day trip hits OT scheduling runs it through the coverage ladder as opposed to letting it sit and go through a PCS run. Swap with the pot can only be done via PCS. It would be a nice tweak in the next contract to say that any second day trip that pops up between 0700 and 2159 must go through a PCS run before scheduling can run manual coverage. That still gives them plenty of time to run manual coverage and assign a reserve pilot if necessary, while allowing for more schedule flexibility through the PCS swap process.

crewdawg

Tennis does a much better job of explaining it above.

crewdawg

He seems to be talking about the ultra premium trips that are 10.5 hours of pay for 1 hour of block and 14 hours TAFB. It can also be done without putting yourself on a shortcall style status. Most of the trip I get are awarded a day or two out, though some are same day if nothing going on. But I certainly don't feel I'm on a SC, most of the time I don't even pack a bag. I get that it's not for everyone, but some people think in extremes when talking about this stuff and the truth is somewhere in the middle.



You know what else is work...going to work and flying bid packet rotations lol. It only takes me a few minutes to put in my WS for the month, then less than a minute to change the date in morning to push it out two day. I don't sit and watch open time, as the WS will cover me. Answering ARCOS takes less than a minute. Check the date/sign-in time and decide. I already know what type of trip it is, or I wouldn't have been called. In the end, I"m gald it doesn't work for everyone, less competition.




I don't disagree and that's what I hope to get to that some day. I'd even consider bidding back to the right seat of a NB if I knew I could get the type of flying most months. But until we start building a lot more 1 and 2 day trips, that plan doesn't work all that well.

Buck Rogers

Sounds like a pretty legit hobby.

That's probably why many would like the choice to fly longer.

neodd

My understanding is that you can still swap into a trip that is 2 days out, but that trip will simulataneously be in coverage ladder so it may be awarded to someone else via that before it hits a PCS run. I think there was a union email about it months ago when 2nd day coverage first started.