Here is my strategy: I want to work hard for high pay and have a few select days off to enjoy family. For me, working hard equals an average of 120 hours a month. While I will not be awarded that, I will at least set myself up to hold a few good paying trips.
As you can see my sideways "Christmas tree" is rather nice.
The Christmas tree shows us how many pairings you are bidding for and the percentage of total available pairings in each layer.
I bid pairings in layers 1 - 3 and criteria in layers 4 - 7. By bidding criteria on my last layers I can play the bidding game a little better given my low seniority. I use the layers as a best case vs. worst case scenario. Note that I am only including locals in my seventh layer. While I don't want to fly any locals, this becomes my safety net. It is easier to be awarded 1 of 200 locals than 1 of 70 four-day trips.
Opening up my layer 7 to the 52.4% isn't exactly conservative since I am at the 59% in the package. It is actually dangerous since I am not even bidding my seniority ranking ratio, however, with the lines as "diluted" as they are (A month) I don't think I'll have a problem bidding around the 55% percentage of the package. Worse case scenario is that I am awarded a CN or PN to complete my line.
For me the 21 and the 27 are the days I want to bid off. I am attending a football game at the University of Arkansas on the 21st (Go Razorbacks!) and I am bidding to fly on Thanksgiving day. If I cannot hold a good trip on Thanksgiving day I at least want Black Friday off. So I have tailored my bid to express that.
One thing I have noticed that can destroy your bid is bidding days off. You virtually subtract 20 pairings from each day you bid off. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to learn that the more days you bid off, the higher your chances of being awarded a CN or PN. I am only bidding two days off total and one of those are only layer 4-7. I think I'll be okay.
I have notice one thing that can wreck your bid worse than days off are carry-in pairings. As you can see I have one. That alone removes about 14 different trips that I could have held. Imagine if I had a carry-in that went farther into the month! Carry-in pairings are also added into your total credit award for the month and can effect your next months awards dramatically. I learned that the hard way last month with I was only awarded 72 hours by the PBS computer but thanks to a carry-in pairing it made it "81 hours awarded". Not a good thing when your trying to fly as much as possible like I am. I had to "skedplus" my whole month and that is what I always hope to avoid but rarely can since I'm still junior.
I'll save you the pairing list... it is long.
By using a descending "min average credit per duty period" I can make increase my safety net against bad trips and CN's and PN's more effective with each layer.
Using my line properties I can remove a couple of the PBS computer's standard perimeters. Example, the PBS computer gives a standard two days off in between work blocks. So, I bring it down to one. I have my minimum days off is 7 so that the computer doesn't try to build me a line with 15 days off (IE four 4-day trips equals 16 days working which in November's bid would give me 13 days off). Bidding by criteria is relatively easy and in a large domicile or for junior folks, I'd recommend it. It may be the reason I have made so many mistakes lately, I may not have the seniority to support what I want.
I think this bid should work for me. It looks that way on paper at least. We'll see on the eighteenth or the nineteenth or the twentieth or the twenty-first.
Continue to November '09 Bid's Award and Reason Report
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