November '09 Bid's Reason Report Continued.

So let's compared how I bid to what I was awarded. From my "Strategy in Bidding / Christmas Tree" entry, I made a couple slight tweaks to my bid. I swapped a couple Layer 2's into Layer 1 and vice versa. I also brought my Layer 5 "min credit average" up. Looking back, I am very glad I did. My layer 7 was showing 51% which I was a little anxious about. Turns out I was award my entire line by Layer 5.

This was my "Prioritize Layers" screen which, for me, becomes my go-to page in determining how all the layers work together. This is a big problem for most crew members as they tend to make the layers rather aggressive and limited. A limited bid increases the likelihood of CN's and PN's.

Now let's compare my actual Award and Reason Report.

As you can See, I was awarded: 1 Layer1, 1 Layer2, 2 Layer3, 0 Layer4, 1 Layer5. My Strategy worked! And I am glad to see that while I had bid very restrictive through all my layers I did not get a CN or PN. In a month where we have a lot of flying (a B-D month) that would have probably happened to me. I bid pairings in Layer 1-3 and criteria in Layers 4-7. Criteria is where you can really get hosed as far as I am concerned. If you don't pay attention to the details you could be awarded a  trip you don't want without even knowing it. That's one of the reasons I "removed pairing on date" in layers 4 and 5.

That trip had a 33 hour layover in SAT. While I enjoy SAT and have friends there, I am here to work. When I come to work, I want to be paid. These 30+ hour layover trips really can bite you in the aft. By bidding for criteria, this trip would have been included in my Layer 4 and beyond. The computer reads this trip as having higher credit per the duty period. It had a credit of 21 hours, which really isn't all that bad, however, among the four-day trips, this was one of the lower paying trips. I would have been willing to fly this trip from my layer 6 and 7 as the rest of the trips in those layers were lower credit. Thankfully, by my "bidding avoiding" this trip I was awarded a higher paying trip instead in my fifth layer.

Also, I was able to get the day off I needed and the trips I wanted! I did sacrifice Black Friday and Thanksgiving. But I am not complaining with all the flying I have. I do however, have to skedplus a little bit to get my 115 hours since that is what I aim for.

Aim small miss small, aim big miss big.