PBS at CAL

[densoo]

More.

Saturday March 17, 2007

The March 15th deadline for delivery of the PBS Dynamic Bid Model, as set forth in the Implementation LOA, has now come and gone. Despite our best efforts to move the project forward, the deadline has been missed by the Company and Jeppesen. Discussions with Jeppesen on a further revised product delivery schedule are ongoing and we will update you as more concrete information becomes available.

Furthermore, it’s important that the pilot group realize that Continental recently made a unilateral decision to staff the PBS help line with crew schedulers as a cost saving measure. In the past, line pilots have served in this capacity. Your Union believes that these schedulers are insufficiently trained and will not be able to answer all pilot questions. They will likely read to you from vendor provided documents concerning some functions, and they can not bring the in-depth experience to the discussion in a way that a line pilot could. Additionally, they are not authorized to inform you what affect certain actions will have on your bid. We have asked that these phone lines be taped in order to properly document the discussion should errors occur with your bid.

Despite our protests, management has also elected to reduce the staffing of pilot trainers available on Prefbids.com. Beginning in April, there will be two shifts per day staffed with a single pilot trainer. Please be patient as they are working to meet your needs under a higher load of work. Management is more than willing to have Prefbids.com staffed by additional trainers if the expense is born by the Union. It is the MEC’s position that PBS training, like all other forms of training at Continental, is an expense that should be covered by the company. Your MEC officers believe that the sacrifice made by this pilot group to accept a PBS system as part of the current concessionary contract is payment enough. This pilot group will not sacrifice one more dollar for a bid system that has not met pilot expectations while the Company and Jeppesen continue to miss agreed upon system implementation deadlines.

The ALPA CAL MEC will continue to comply with its part of the contractual agreement in regards to moving PBS forward. Enabling the continuance of a problematic bid system and subsidizing it with ALPA dues money --- your dues money--- is entirely unacceptable and will not receive our support. We will inform you when and if any additional information concerning this issue becomes available. Please remember to continue flying safely and professionally.

CAL MEC

 

[Phrogs4ever]

Even better, how about the message we got after that one? It said something to the effect that "as a cost saving measure, crew shedulers will be used to man the PBS hotline!" That's exactly what I need to get out of DeniM-4, bidding tips from crew scheds. I think my three year old would be more helpful.

 

[densoo]

Even better, how about the message we got after that one? It said something to the effect that "as a cost saving measure, crew shedulers will be used to man the PBS hotline!" That's exactly what I need to get out of DeniM-4, bidding tips from crew scheds. I think my three year old would be more helpful.

The schedulers are understaffed now. I would have to think that management is going to give them this (significant) additional duty with no additional staffing.

[A lot like the way congress and president treated Walter Reed--lots more wounded, no more money. Please make do. Walter Reed was selected for base closure for crying out loud and as such, by law, was prohibited from major outlays of funds there. And the congressmen at that hearing had the nerve to blame the guys in uniform. I guess all large organizations do it this way, but the line workers, be it pilots, schedulers, soldiers, always suck it up.]

But I digress.

I can only imagine what's going to happen the first time there is a weather meltdown at the same time the PBS bid window is open; the scheduling line will be so busy they'll probably just turn off incoming calls entirely. The union will quickly send out a blastmail to all pilots stating "we oppose the current situation and we are in discussions with the company to remedy." Tic toc.

 

[whymeworry?]

PBS is one of the worst things to hit our career since deregulation or 9/11.

What's worse though? Flying with the kool-aid drinkers who, on the one hand whine about PBS, then arrive every leg 15-20 early.

I'm tired of listening to pilots bitch about PBS and do nothing about it. I am now to the point when I cut them off within 2 minutes and ask them what they've done to get involved, i.e., call the union, write letters to flight ops, fly to rule, etc. Most do nothing at all so I tell them to shut it when their whining starts. I will only discuss the subject with pilots who are legitimately trying to effecutate change.

One thing's for sure... we are severely understaffed due to PBS and all this system is ultimately going to do is get the pilots to battle hard during C'08 negotiations... well, I'm referring of course to those who don't drink the koolaid.

 

[JohnQ]

At DAL we are very happy with our PBS. We have had it for a year and a half and I can't think of five pilots I have talked to who would rather go back to the old Line of Time system (and it was a pretty good system, too).

So why the big discrepancy compared to others?

1. We went with NavTech's CLASS system, which we determined (correctly evidently) was vastly superior to any other vendor's.

2. CLASS absolutely honors seniority. It will put an extra junior guy on reserve rather than pull a senior guy's trip off his line so as to "make one more regular line."

3. CLASS has a Reasons Report, which tells you (in mostly plain English) just why you did or did not get what you hoped for. It saves 98% of all calls.

4. We have VERY STRONG union oversight, and this is agreed to by mgmt. We (the union) review every category's results and have to OK them before mgmt releases the results to the pilot group. We have frequently had to send the results back with our objections.

Add all the above together and you have a pretty happy pilot group at DAL. Is PBS perfect? No. In fact some months we have significant processing headaches. But it is still a pretty good system, and as we all get more comfortable with it, it should get even better.

Remember...strong union oversight is a must. Otherwise ANY PBS system can create chaos and headaches.

 

[AA717driver]

Remember...strong union oversight is a must. Otherwise ANY PBS system can create chaos and headaches.

That's why it'll never happen at AA. TC

 

[densoo]

strong union

That would be an oxymoron here.

 

[pkober]

Worry,

We need to write a PBS resolution form for every single problem in every single bid group once scheduling takes over. If you have 20 bid groups with small problems send in 20 PBS resolution forms. Call them about every one also. Make life a living hell for the company. Maybe then they will see the problems with PBS.

TC,

I agree. This is going to be the biggest issue on our new MEC's plate. Alott of people, myself included, are watching to see if they have the ball$ that they say they have. They need to get this PBS fixed, now. A ALPA pilot group is hurting and I have heard nothing from ALPA national. This could be another example of a local union being better that a national union. At least I'm paying dues so Prater can get almost $500,000/yr and never worry about his schedule.

 

[cal73cap]

Our PBS system is way overcomplicated. I have talked to PBS trainers and even had a very senior Trainer/Captain in my jumpseat last week. He said that if they didn't have enough choices pilots would complain about that! So they just couldn't win. I am 15% in IAH on the 737 and of course I am lucky to get what I ask for, however I am about to go to Capt. on the 757 and will drop to 50%, I am sure I will then have some complaints. This is a very confusing system that I wish could be simplified. Is the old line system better, not really, just easier to understand. A lot of pilots just haven't figured out PBS. The clue is to Set, AVOID, and Award! Guys will know what I am talking about.

 

[Pat Fabin]

I have to say, I really like our PBS at DAL. I was pretty skeptical, having been used to bidding lines for so long. I'm very junior in my category and I still basically get what I'm looking for (particular days off). The more senior guys can literally create their own lines. I rarely hear any complaints about PBS....if I heard anything it was in the beginning.

Its a very simple system to use. The only drawback was that the lines took a while to come out, but since most of the bugs have been worked out the lines are usually out in a day or three from the closing date.

Don't get me wrong, you can hose yourself too...but you could do that bidding the old way too. And the way it handles vacation is pretty decent...not quite as good as the old days with 'trips touching' but I have yet to work right up until vacation unless I put a trip there myself.

 

[kaisersose]

Carmen/Jepp/Boeing PBS sucks.

The Alpa PBS committee bought this pos and now won't admit they made a big mistake. So then everything is our fault or the company's implementation is to blame. The line pilots have no one on our side with this issue. The company can sit back and laugh because they are the only ones this system works for. If it wasn't so disgusting it would be laughable to watch the committee and trainers defend this miserable failure. They say it is the under staffing that makes system go into overall solution constraints for a majority of the pilots. The staffing is fine on the 777 and we still get splat around 50-60% so they then say we are overstaffed. They blame low productivity trips for splat on the domestic side but tell us on the 777 our trips are too productive and there are not enough low time trips to fill in with. There is always an excuse but never will they admit, even though it is obvious, it just can't handle the job.

All the trainers say is how powerful the system is and we got the best product and how the other airlines chose inferior products blah blah blah. They love this thing and until we have someone on our side we are stuck with it. They are like Ford dealers selling Pintos in the 70s, they know it is going to work for crap and eventually blow up but they keep smiling and selling it to us.

 

[pkober]

Our PBS system is way overcomplicated. I have talked to PBS trainers and even had a very senior Trainer/Captain in my jumpseat last week. He said that if they didn't have enough choices pilots would complain about that! So they just couldn't win. I am 15% in IAH on the 737 and of course I am lucky to get what I ask for, however I am about to go to Capt. on the 757 and will drop to 50%, I am sure I will then have some complaints. This is a very confusing system that I wish could be simplified. Is the old line system better, not really, just easier to understand. A lot of pilots just haven't figured out PBS. The clue is to Set, AVOID, and Award! Guys will know what I am talking about.

This system is a POS. Sets, avoids, etc.. have nothing to do with it. The problem is that the system looks past your seniority to see if what you should get will affect some one junior to you. It shouldn't matter how your bid affects some one junior to you. When I called the "union" about this problem, there answer was that I am just at that seniority range, 60% ish, that gets screwed. No advice on how to get relief, just the typical "sucks to be you" reply.

I agree that egos are now preventing us from getting relief from this problem. No one high up at the union wants to stand up and say the system sucks. They are all apologists for PBS.

I don't know if PBS is screwing us or the union.