GogglesPisano
Pawn, in game of life
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2003
- Posts
- 3,939
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Well for starters you are spouting a contradiction--"90 hour months" along with no open time. How can you have one and the other. Here is the real story.
You NEVER have 90 hour months with PBS. The most it could ever be (usually in the summer) is 89:30. Of course many times of year it can be as little as 65. My Nov schedule is at 71.
As for no open time...that is the whole point, isn't it? Think about it. If you have a lot of open time left over after the bid run (with line of time or PBS) that is several more regular lines that you could have built, but didn't, thereby relegating a few more guys to reserve than otherwise would have been necessary.
No trip trading? Hmmm. I just traded a trip with another guy last week! (on our Pilot-to-Pilot Swapboard). I also have dropped trips, and picked them up. I also have picked up, dropped, and swapped, trips out of "normal" open time as well as the swapboard.
If your buddies have any complaints about no open time, then that is related more to the time of year (now, with a big drawdown in flying) than the system.
I have yet to meet five guys in the last three years who would want to go back to Line of Time bidding--and we had a good LOT system!
In fact I think if we announced the end of PBS, you would probably get a host of complaints.
Pilots by default are big proponents of "all change is bad, and the good ol' days were always better than now." But remember this: "This week's 'crisis' is next week's footnote."
R u serious? My DAL buddies hate it... they say there is never any open time, very limited trip trading, working up to 90hrs/month, etc. Screw that!!
If you haven't tried it, don't knock it. I've used it at two different airlines, and it works great - if you take the time to read the manual and understand they system!! There is no other way to get the specific days off you want, or the trips you want without a PBS system. Grow up and try something new!
The amount of open time, trip trading and the rest is entirely due to company staffing, not which type of bidding system you have. The two are separate animals.
HAL
They work at Delta Air Lines, right?
I hear very few complaints abt PBS here.
All lines have to be constructed with +/- 7.5 hrs of the average line. The average line is a bit higher in the summer but usually hovers around 75-80 hrs.
A 90-hr line would be hard to come by, even if you asked for a high-value line.
PBS, like an airplane, can work great if it is programmed correctly and operated correctly. The options available to the pilots must be bought and implemented and both the union and the company, like a captain and F/O, must operate it together.
There are all sorts of horror stories out there about PBS. It really is only as good as the operator(s), both the company in the parameters they purchase for it and the pilot in how he uses it. Either one can screw it up. It really is no more difficult than than programming your FMS computer.
IF the union is knowledgeable enough to know what to demand of PBS then PBS is the greatest thing in the world. The difference in bidding is analogous to flying an old bent DC-3 versus a nice new 777. The difference is stark, dramatic and very pleasurable.
I surmise the reason the AAA MEC is so set against PBS is because they don't understand it and don't want to. Line bidding is a leftover from the pre-electronic age. Rotary dial phones were nice but voice dialing is so much more convenient!
I never spend more than 5 minutes inputting my monthly bid on PBS and I get everything I want. You have to be cognizant of your seniority and what you can and cannot hold because PBS will not gift you. It will give you what you can hold. And if you ask for too much without considering how each bid option affects another then you will be disappointed just like a kid on Christmas who asked for the moon.
I can understand the angst with learning something new - like converting to an ILS from the old range course. It really does work better for the pilot. Everyone talks about how it can work better for the company but the company suffers the same consequences as a pilot if they don't use it correctly.
I have one week of vacation right now and with PBS I easily extended it to over three weeks and got weekends and Thanksgiving week off. You just have to know how to do it because it isn't going to hold your hand. The best thing for junior pilots is the knowledge that the more senior and older pilots will not take the time to learn it so for a while junior guys can get some fantastic lines!
Knowledge of the system is your friend. Most people just won't make the effort to understand how it works. We had the same problem when autopilots were introduced on airplanes.
The AAA MEC is doing its membership a severe disservice by not looking for alternatives that can make a pilot's life so much better than being tied to paper line bidding.
All lines have to be constructed with +/- 7.5 hrs of the average line. The average line is a bit higher in the summer but usually hovers around 75-80 hrs.
A 90-hr line would be hard to come by, even if you asked for a high-value line.