PBS Good or Bad?

[cessnapilot]

we have it a nwa. It was great... at first. The company got it fine tuned and when our contract changed, from top to bottom, the schedules sucked. There is no going back, so we are stuck with this. It is very efficient... so no ioe conflicts, vacation conflicts, training conflicts... so FEWER pilots needed for the same amount of flying... My recommendation... don't go down that road.

 

[Gnarloooo]

Bar none the most miserable piece of garbage ever. I have seen life before PBS and life after it...and post PBS is awful. I am even senior and get what I want most of the time...the problem is that it gives the company too much control. Most people that like it are either SUPER senior or too new to know the difference. It is a concession...do NOT treat it as anything else.

 

[vetrider]

I actually like PBS, but of course I don't have the slightest idea what a bid even is, or what it does, or what people are talking about when they talk about bidding. I must be a reserve or something.

I do know that if I want one single day off in a month, I simply bid 900 points for it off, and walla, I get it off. You just gotta know how to work it, thats all. Pumpin Iron, wide open.

 

[trachyte11]

It's worked somewhat for me. It doesn't work to well when the pairings/trips aren't any good to begin with, though.

 

[vetrider]

Maybe I'm just a simpleton, but when you're off, you're off. When you're working, you're working. Period.

I'd rather type in a paramater or two than wade through 500 pages of nothing. I've watched in amazement in the past as guys have spent every moment of a 4 day trip studying the afformentioned 500 pages of nothing. The hell of it is, those 4 days were probably only part of it. Whatever yanks a guys bobber I guess.

Bottom line, I'll take PBS, thank you.

 

[cessnapilot]

Maybe I'm just a simpleton, but when you're off, you're off. When you're working, you're working. Period.

I'd rather type in a paramater or two than wade through 500 pages of nothing. I've watched in amazement in the past as guys have spent every moment of a 4 day trip studying the afformentioned 500 pages of nothing. The hell of it is, those 4 days were probably only part of it. Whatever yanks a guys bobber I guess.

Bottom line, I'll take PBS, thank you.

You obviously don't understand the effects on staffing. It also depends on the company you work for. Our company has a new provision to reduce open time. The net effect is, if the #1 pilot bids a trip, and it needs that trip to fill another schedule, it can take it if needed. PBS is potentially the biggest QOL killer out there. Just realize that the way it operates is very dependent on your contract and how the company programs it.

 

[NuGuy]

Heyas,

CP is on the mark. I've seen the good and bad side of the PBS. It all boils down to trip construction and how much you allow the company to adjust all the settings.

At NWA, PBS really worked like a charm. There were lots and lots of all different kinds of flying, which really played to PBS' strength. PBS works best when your monthly cap isn't too high, and plenty of open time is allowed to remain after bidding.

After the disaster that is the new contract, all the caps went through the roof, and the actual flying per day decreased, increasing the number of days at work. At the same time, the ding dongs allowed the company to goto a "zero open time" policy, which tried to eliminate any open time at the end of bidding, thus forcing the program to jam flying into people's schedules.

You can't really look at PBS and say "this sucks" or "it's great" without looking at the envrionment it was used in.

Nu

 

[Bavarian Chef]

This question is company specific it seems. PBS is implemented much differently at different places, as is open time, trading, swapping, pickup etc etc.

Curious to see where those most vehemently opposed to it actually work.

 

[Patriot328]

Curious to see where those most vehemently opposed to it actually work.

Take a swim across the Hudson and check out CAL on "How to NOT Impliment a PBS System"


I've talked to a few JB pilots and they seem to like their system.

Our system is too complicated, we're understaffed, and we have no control as to how many lines it will make (it will make a pre-determined amount of lines for any given equip/base/seat each month. What that essentially does is force it to build crap lines throughout in order to get that many total lines)...

PBS could be a good thing, or at least a neutral thing, but it has been a disaster here.

 

[Wino]

It all depends on Whose preferences are being awarded.

The Pilot's or the company's? Basically it is NOT worth the risk UNLESS the program is controlled by the pilots. Otherwise unless you have a 100 percent trustworthy management (and if you are an airline pilots and think your management is trust worthy you are either brand new or a fool) ******************** can happen behind the scenes.

its NOT transparent, the devil is in the details and the line pilots or the scheudling comittee rarely gets to see the details... Even if it starts out great a few keystrokes later and its an abortion.

Cheers
Wino