Jetlinker

To my ASA brethren......how's the whole PBS thing working out in these past couple of months? Our scheduling committee (XJT) recently published their report on the pros/cons of potential PBS systems. I'm just wondering if opinions amongst ASA pilots have changed in the past few months. We've been told on this side that the initial level of satisfaction with the PBS system was high. A lot of XJT guys would like to get a follow up from you guys now that it's been going for a few months. Thanks.

ASAnotASAP

I still love it! I'm in the top 50 percent, so I can't speak for those suffering from juniority, but I've had good feedback from 3 out of 4 people I've talked to. I have not swapped a single trip in the last 4 months because I got everything I wanted.
If we choose to go with PBS as a combined group we have to have realistic expectations. If you can't hold weekends off, you will NOT be able to get weekends off with PBS. What you will likely be able to do is get the overnights, or start/end times you want. You will also be able to arrange your schedule if you desire a 4-7 block of days off somewhere in a given month, while having only one or two days off between trips at another time in a month.
For my last one week vacation at the end of March (which fell between two months, allowing me to bid "vacation low" for two months in a row) I was able to get a stretch of 29 days off in a row.

CRJDriver

Believe it or not, management thinks it's too good for the pilots and wants to go back to line bidding.

gtechpilot

I've been generally pleased but it does seem to spit out unexpected results if you don't get your desired inputs just right.

Example #1, at 300/400 on the -200 last month I got five commutable three days, which was great, but two were back-to-back which wasn't. Was able to trade out three of my trips for two four days and get more time off later.

Example #2, this month I was awarded five four days (one carried over into August). I was shooting for higher credit and min days. I screwed up the bid by allowing carry over days in my bid sheet, otherwise I would have gotten only four four-days. Managed to trade out quite a bit and now have most weekends and the 4th off.

There is also a tendency for super junior pilots to get a line if their training or vacation days fall just right. For example, on the -700 in May #3 from the bottom got a line.

I don't think I would have gotten better results with line bidding, especially with the company controlling both the pairings and the line builds.

PeezDog

When I am lucky enough to be awarded a line, being junior, I usually get to work the weekends, which I prefer off. If I need days off during the middle of the week somewhere, I can easily get that off. I do however sometimes get lucky and get a weekend off or partial weekends. This month I have two partial weekends off (Sundays), and I had one whole but I picked up a nap to bump up my credit. That weekend would have been in the middle of 7 days off in a row that I randomly got. No single days off. I also prefer late duty ins and early duty outs, or at least be done no later than 5 or so. I was successful there in all but one late duty out at the end of the month. I have 13 days off and just shy of 88 hours. Would have been about 83 hours with 15 days off if I didn't pick up the nap. So when you get a line, you can get what you want if you are senior, and if your junior, some things you want. It can also be random with off days if you don't specify, or are junior. Training and vacation have given me some weird results, but possibly because I am junior. You really need to know how to bid, or it can bite you (get stuck on reserve when you could have held a line for example).

I will say though, that PBS does seem to give the company leeway to screw people over. I.E min days off and low credit. Like in June, they abused the unstacking feature, ignored crewmembers requests, and had a ridiculous amount of open time instead of awarding extra lines. So guys like me got screwed and stuck on reserve, meanwhile there was enough open time to have awarded several more pilots lines, and still have enough reserve coverage. Also, TDY'd people up here (IAD) to cover flying instead of awarding more pilots lines. I forget the percent that was awarded reserve, but it was something ridiculous. It was obvious that they screwed everyone. Guys that got lines were saying that they got low credit and min days off. Don't know what their seniority was though.

For June, we opened DTW and new hires were not ready to fly, so that may have been why everything was screwed up. Don't forget being understaffed. Also, they were building terrible parings that made everything worse. But this month everything seems to have gone smoothly. Don't know what to attribute that too. Luck, new hires on line, finally learning how to build more efficient parings, or maybe the kinks have finally been worked out and the company realized that abusing the system to their own advantage back fired on them.

So, my short answer is that I'm middle of the ground for now. Hoping that June was just a one time thing. I have seen the potential of it being good, and the potential of it being bad. Can't complain too much about what I was awarded this month. Don't think I would have gotten a much better award with line biding.

PeezDog

Haha what? They are the ones that wanted PBS in the first place lol

Hoser

Pretty senior on the 200, so I pretty much get what I want by "tagging" pairings. One month I turned a week VAC into 3 1/2 weeks, this month a week into 19 days off. As everyone has already mentioned, good for seniority but about the same for junior pilots.

I do know Co hates that we're working VAC Low into a bunch of time off, especially when they're short, and will certainly try to get rid of that in our joint contract agreement.

But the bottom line is pairing construction. The Co builds them (ASA ALPA does also on a limited basis) and has been making very low credit pairings, with line threshold in the high 80s - low 90s. So one could end up working quite a bit. This has bit the Co's ass so far this year EVERY month, causing then to offer 200% pick-ups, and now another MOU allowing everyone more liberal open time pick-up, including reserves.

Biggest problem we're having now is no quarantee on a DH leg back to base, especially if it's your last scheduled "leg". It's supposed to be covered in our PWA but Delta evidently won't allow us positive space if the flight is full of revenue pax. ASA ALPA working on it now.

Hoser
ROLLLLLL TIDE!

SayAgain

ASA still builds the pairings and PBS is a good sorting tool to put the types of pairings you want where you want for the month you're bidding on. It's allowed a lot of folks who were reservists to get off reserve and has allowed nice blocks of time off for vacation. Every single day I've wanted off since pbs, I've been able to get. It's also cut down on my bidding time. I'm middle of the pack on the 200. Some of the pairings they build are still crap.

I've heard that SH has called the union complaining about the amount of time we've been able to get off for vacation, don't know if it's true though.

SilverandSore

This is far from the biggest problem we have. This is being blown out of proportion. Not that it's right if it even happens once but jeez, this isn't the new policy.

higney85

PBS has a few "bottlenecks" in any application.

1. Understanding by the pilot group.
2. Pairings generated for the bid month.
3. Constraints by the company.

You need all 3 to make is "golden". With 2/3 of the list you have the top end with "great" and bottom end complaining.