MWright

Here's the biggest thing about PBS: it's a computer program that knows when you're on vacation or going to training. Armed with this info it will build you a schedule that flys right up to each end of the vacation week, meaning you don't generally get many days off on either side. Same goes for training.

With line bidding, you rank the pre-built company schedules. This many not sound good, but they make all types of lines that generally can fit people's needs for days off. Most of them follow a "cadence" and work the same days each week (ex. Mon-Wed, Tues-Thurs, etc.). With this system, one can bid a line that flys into (aka "conflicts") the start of the vacation week, and also conflicts with the end of the vacation week. This results in at least 2 weeks off and some times closer to 3 weeks off for a single week of vscation. With PBS, this is impossible.

Fried chicken

With hard lines. Do you guys fly with the same person all month long?

e6bpilot

Your original line trips will be with the same person.
Some guys fly their original lines and don't do any trip trading, but the vast majority do. For that reason, your original line is more of a starting point for the month. My original line for March looks nothing like what I have now. I went from working 12 days to 9 and have none of the trips awarded on my original line. This is not unusual.

73elcamino

So which of the other airlines use PBS? Just curious.

Burton78

Asked the same question in a different thread. But I'm pretty positive UAL and DL have it. Not sure about AA, but most likely as it seems to be a common concession for companies that have gone through a BK.

audioflyer

Great answer about PBS, thanks!

full of luv

This is true. DL UA and in its way at AA. I think some of the regionals have it as well. It's a major concession, especially at a single category type company, that would probably save at least 10% of pilots on your seniority list. (Have no actual data, may even be more or less).
There are some minor benefits to pilots with pbs but losing the conflict is a huge deal in general. Installed during BK but once you go PBS there really is no way your ever going back to line bidding.
Hey it could be worse. I've heard from a friend at an overseas carrier that their skeds are mostly imposed upon them with far less control than we have here in the us.

at6d

NO PBS.

If SWA went PBS, we can kiss our scheduling flexibility goodbye.

The better question to ask is what was it like before PBS and then after for those airlines?

FL180

Let me start off by saying I DO NOT want PBS on property. I understand the biggest downside of PBS is losing trip touching and being able to turn 1 week of vacation into three, but what if by accepting PBS we got a threefold increase of vacation days? Now I don't even know if the company would even agree to a stipulation such as this, but if they did, would that make you consider PBS? Why or why not? Are there other aspects of PBS that are a no go for you besides losing trip touching? Just curious.

Burton78

I'll caveat this by saying I have no first hand experience with PBS. For me, it's simple and it comes down to one word, flexibility, as at6d mentioned earlier. It's hard to place value on the fact that I know when I initially bid for a month, I can greatly improve my line over what I will be able to attain from my junior bidding power alone. For example, in March I was originally awarded around 91 TFP and within one hour after the ELITT opened, not only was I able to get the days off I was seeking, I was also able to increase my total TFP to approximately 118, all while only adding only one extra day of actual work .. (16 total days off) If I'm not mistaken, PBS doesn't afford you that luxury.

Also, simply adding more vacation time does not necessarily equate to the amount of TFP you can make from trips being dropped for pay that touch vacation. I've seen and heard of some pretty wild amounts of TFP people rack up in conjunction with vacation ranging upwards of 200 TFP and in some cases, much more.