I like BIG Bus

Using a service to help you bid does not give you a "competitive advantage". It may allow you to optimize your seniority but that's about it. The comparison is severely flawed. PBS is seniority based and open time and premium are first come first served. Apples to oranges, don't muddy the water by trying to justify using bots with this. Using a bot to beat out everyone in a first come first serve system "is" gaming the system and with the amount of money at stake paramount to stealing in my book. I hope the upcoming punishments are swift and harsh!

ERAUAV8R

I commend how prideful this pilot group is. But at this point I ask that we all be honest with ourselves. Accept the fact you suck at flica and quit blaming “bots”. Lots of factors at play (internet speed, hardware, browser… etc) It’s easy to point the finger and look at someone as a “cheater”, but truth is they figured it out and you haven’t. It’s pathetic at this point that we keep chasing the ghost of “bots”. Maybe we can all gather and hunt the Loch Ness monster once this issue is taken care of.

Aero1900

Dude, there's literally a website to buy a bot that's been heavily advertised on this forum

ERAUAV8R

There are also sexy women in your area wanting to meet you

Mooneyguy

do yourself a favor and just block him. It makes apc much better.

Nacho Libre

The issue is that bots exist, and their usage is not acceptable, and it needs to be fixed. We aren't complaining about someone that is faster than us or has faster internet. We aren’t happy with those who cheat the system as it was intended. ie the employee only using FLICA by having been logged in and personally making the add, drop, swap, or trade. Period.

I like BIG Bus

We literally had someone get caught using a bot because they missed the trip.
I'm going to take this a little further though, let's take the bots out of the argument altogether. The fact that you can use anything to gain an advantage exposes the problem with our system. Everyone should have the opportunity to participate in premium flying without having to sit on a computer. I fly with people who have never flown a premium trip because of the "professionals". This is our job where we all make a living and as a group should share in the bonuses of this job. It's not a sport or competition. And, open time should absolutely be seniority based at least for a given period of time. PBS is not the end all be all that some people think it is. The reason the airline industry is seniority based is albeit not a perfect system it is orderly, predictable and difficult to circumvent.

ERAUAV8R

so what do we do? Make flica only available on the company iPad and make sure everyone has the same internet speeds?

HSCompressor

Does it though?

Stayontarget

Ran into a MEC rep a while ago who described how it’s a problem unprompted by me. You’re either ignorant or a user.

I don’t make many requests but when I do I’m pretty fast even just using just my phone. I know the game and don’t mind being beaten out by the fast ones because I used to play the game as well and be one of the fast ones. Then I got a life. I still occasionally play the game but somehow, amazingly, HALF of my requests have been beaten by one person. The last one in particular I just happened to be in FLICA when the trip dropped on my home computer with solid wifi at a random time of day. Surprise, surprise…I still lost out to that guy. Possible yes. Likely no.