Broncofan

this software needs to go, it’s embarrassing when regional carriers have more user friendly software than we do. Flexibility should be apart of it too, but we need something new.

fadec

7 buckets (L--, L-, L, N, H, H+, H++) isn't enough to preference trips when there are 30 trips starting per day. You can't set "day off" to H++ since it's essentially hard-coded to N, so if you want days off then you are limited to 3 buckets (L--, L-, L). I don't know why we count from L-- to H++ instead of -100 to +100. Or even 0 to 100 where you preference days off same as work. Junior guys need more buckets because they basically have to bid all 30 or so trips starting each day in preferential order.

Lumberg823

There is an art to dropping trips. Learning the bad day worse day trade is difficult but is key to dropping trips. I was able to drop a Christmas day (O dark thirty) trip by picking up some worse day trips earlier in the month and combining them with my Christmas trip to get a net bad day vs a worse day scenario. Also not to insult you but are you ending your bid groups with award work L--? Someone correct me if I am wrong but that tells the solver that you want it to give you the least amount of trips/work that will meet your constraints and is a legal line. Anything higher than L-- it could give you extra trips and extra hours to make someone junior to you better off. I'd also add these are unusual times. 90 hour lines are not normal and is being driven by an increase in rsv coverage so the company doesn't have a repeat of Jan if there were to be another wave of the Rona. I'd be surprised if that were to continue once the IOE backlog works itself out and rona case loads drop, I'd be willing to bet that the extra rsv coverage that is driving these high mpg lines will return closer to the normal for your fleet/domicile.

ThumbsUp

I think that times may have changed. Dropping trips seems to be pretty difficult nowadays.

trevtt600

This is accurate here at SWA. Our min days off a month is 15 (a couple months a year its 14 I believe). Its almost impossible to credit 90 trips here (almost always more)... Our min monthly credit is 85 for February, and the 87 or 89 depending on how many days in the month. I averaged 115ish last year, on reserve, and only picking up 2 trips all year. I blocked about 550 hours and credited roughly 1350 trips for year.

I have seen a few of my buddies schedules who is at United, and boy it looks tough as a junior guy. Seems like the bidding software you guys have access to may be worth it.

worstpilotever

How many of southwest trips are commutable on both ends? I ask because my understanding is very few. So if you have 15 days off a month with 4 trips, you will have to commute at least 4 days, bringing you down to 11 days where you are truly off.

the reality is you are junior and will end up with the dregs. At the rate we are hiring this will change quickly.

JurgenKlopp

NB Junior 3/4 days don’t get miraculously picked up by someone senior. They are junior for a reason. Many of us remember the PBS Splat Zone days at CAL with this PBS system. Everyone junior to 30% got 87 hours/12 days off esp over the summer. Sorry to see that coming back.

trevtt600

That is correct. We do AM or PM trips. If your a commuter, one side will usually have a hotel. That being said, many of our lines have 16 to 18 days off, with reserve lines having the minimum 15 days off exclusively. Commuting sucks all around. Doesn't matter how many days you have off. Your gone a lot more than living in base.

Hedley

We’re spreading the pilot group pretty thin right now since demand has come back. We are also taking on more flying from the regionals that cannot staff what they are contracted to fly. I’d guess that high time lines on the NB fleet will be the norm until we take a significant number of deliveries and they are able to staff appropriately for what ever the new UAL/UAX mix is.

CLazarus

At my last Council meeting, we were told a much improved PBS interface was coming this spring. So, cross your fingers. I don't think 90 hour lines are going to last past this summer, and the return of the PW 777s over the next few months should help take a load off. If you read the SSC update from yesterday's MEC update, the 737 fleet has had pretty eye popping cancellation numbers the last few months. I think mgmt knows they need to shift flying elsewhere as it comes back on line.

I bid WB a couple months back because I decided I needed a slower pace for couple of years (I'll be a LH).

Here is something that is maybe counterintuitive and didn't occur to me for a few years - bid longer/fewer workblocks + shorter trips. Shorter trips are much easier to drop and trade. I rarely am able to drop a trip of 3+ days. Also, make sure you look at Line Construction Floor and Line Construction Average when putting in your bid and bid for a lower credit line if possible (one that won't cause your whole bid group to fail).

Get awarded back to back one days? Look to trade them both for a two day ending in a DH that you can fake. It is not unusual at all for me to do exactly this. You need to set up trip notifications in Crew Companion as well if you haven't already (not CCS, those notifications suck). You can customize alerts from Crew Companion for trips that you might actually be interested in, such as ones with lots of soft time or laying over in your hometown. Oh, and if you can figure out who the LCAs are in your base, try to bid or trade into trips with them and maybe you'll get bought out occasionally.

Anyways, apologies for wasting your time if you don't already know this. In "normal" times I was averaging about 90-100 hours of pay a month but only about 45-50 of it was hard time. I've been earning much more lately, but working more too. YMMV, good luck.