flensr

You have no idea what's going on with that guy. You can look at his board and year's flying history to get a clue, if you really want to try to decode someone's bidding motivation. In this case, he apparently wanted to fly more than any other premium bidders senior to him, and had the seniority to get the trip instead of you. That's how the contract works, both the letter of the contract AND the intent.

I know for me personally, I've had some extreme family issues that have severely limited the trips I can fly. So even though I'm very near my historical annual block numbers (500-600 block hours annually), I'm down well over 20% in paid TFP for the year. That puts me in a bind. I simply can't fly most of what's out there. When you're looking at a guy who out-bid you at straight and his average monthly TFP is under 90, you can bet your butt that he almost certainly looked in ELITT, TTGA, under seat cushions for spare change, pretty much EVERYTHING before resorting on bidding straight on OT. That guy.. you might consider giving him a break 'cause he's had enough to deal with already without critique from people who are butt hurt over getting out-bid for OT.

RJSAviator76

Interesting observation and logic, but wrong airline. Nothing irks these bozos more than a reserve sitting at home. In fact, I'm pretty sure the company almost looks at it as stealing. Why? Because of how we use reserves on every day basis. Everywhere else, reserves don't fly nearly as much as we do here. Why is it different here? Because the company thinks they "pre-paid" reserves so now they're just using them and it's hardly costing them anything. When a straight bidder bids a trip, the reserves sit at home... everyone except the company is happy.

You know what's really fun? Putting their STC'd crap back together at straight that when put back together ends up paying more than had they just awarded the whole thing premium.... and then I make it a point to thank them profusely...

Otherwise, great advice for newbies. In times where everyone under the sun is bidding straight, take junk from MOT and then blow it up in ELITT. Easy 2nd year pay and usually rigged too.

Liberty

So you are complaining that a senior guy got a an award and you didn’t? Because he got the award, your upset with his bidding? Man, there’s a BUNCH of weirdos around here. This is one of the worst posts I’ve read.

hoover

MOT is good for 1st yr guys will pay 2nd yr if over original line guarantee.
I give away all my stuff and rebuild my schedule around my life. Right bow for dec all I have is one 2 day and that'll probably go away as well then I fly on the days I want. I'll bid premium for everything that I want and put in an automatic bid to get the premium overnight, I don't reccomend this until you understand it. I've been able to get a premium trip for the days I want 99% of the time but I'm <10% in base.
I havent bid the straight unless I'm going somewhere and want to get paid to non rev but I can see why people do.
There us a person in my base who is more senior than me who bids straight on every trip and fly it.
I think that person is single parent and pretty much only works 1 or 2 day trips. So we all have reasons.
I've grabbed stuff out of TTGA when it works for me but most of that either is gone when TTGA opens or is weekends etc. So its not as simple as picking from MOT or TTGA to make your nut.
Do what you want, there is usually enough out there for everyone.
I'll pick up a reserve block if there isn't much going on. Either sit at home and get paid or get a rigged trip. Better than that 10 tfp 2 day I see people do.

Scout5784

Can you help me understand how to put a trip that's been STC'd back together as you explained?

RJSAviator76

If you open up trips that are STC'd, you'll see a hyperlinked note "Originally trip <trip code> dated <date>." Click on that hyperlink, and see what the original trip looked like. Then you need to look at other bases and days to see where the trip had been exported to, they'll have the same "Originally trip <same code>." Then you bid on those. If you get them, the DH's drop off, and you get paid for them regardless after the audit. Often enough, after DH's are dropped and you're paid for them, the trip will pay substantially more than if bid on straight and sometimes more than had they just assigned it at premium. The risk is that you'll get outbid putting it back together and you're stuck flying a subrigged crap trip.

hoover

I'll do this after getting the first part at premium. Then go look to see if I can grab the other part like you said. That way I dont get stuck with a sub rigged trip.
if you're lucky you can get both parts at premium. Put a 2 day back together this way and got over 30tfp for it.

ElonMusk

All these ways to help the company out by allowing more flying to be done by less pilots is inspiring, or not. The company doesn’t care what the cost is as long as a trip is covered. That was prevalent during the time of 1.5X pay a year or so back. The cost is irrelevant to them as long as the trip is run. You get a lack of availability of pilots for a trip and sooner or later down the line they have to cancel a trip, well things get changed then. This is basic understanding of business but the fact that pilots see an increased cost to a company they doesn’t mind increased costs in the short term is a good thing….well that is disturbing to say the least. Leave the probies to do as they want, they are the ones on the B scale, but anyone else picking up OT, well that is the definition of short term thinking. Why pilots should never be allowed near management.

Nothing worse than the dude on a POT complaining to me about how long the contract is taking…let’s just say that convo turns sideways quickly.

flyguy81

Unless there’s a big wx event or mx…they rarely cx. They’ll reroute 50 people and pay out an extra $100k in premium to get those 120 people to SMF. They’ll pay a guy POT with Rsv’s in base just because they “might” need them later. This place wastes so much $ it’s ridiculous.

Delta/United will run flights 20 hrs late to avoid a cx…regionals though will cancel if the FO eats bad Taco Bell.

at6d

Somebody please list the codes for open time awards. I know AR is assigned reserve. Whats DOT? (Tells you how much premium I’ve flown LOL)