April '10 Bid's Nuts and Bolts

The flying has changed drastically in COS yet again. We've gained a lot of trips compared to previous months however the pairing length and block hours have gone askew. True, every month is different but in COS even small changes change everything due to the fact that it is a small domicile. The only consistency in pairings, that I've seen, are the ORD and SLC round-trip locals. While it is good that we've gained so many locals that lots of people want, there are those of us who want good paying multi-day trips. Last year I brought home over $7500 in per diem alone. I'm well on my way this year, but the TAFB to credit ratio is terrible for multi-day trips. Heck, there are only three four-day trips that the credit even comes close to 24 hours. We have one three-day trip that exceeds 17 hours and just three or four two-day trips that are 11 hours or better. That just doesn't make me happy. My only hope is that most of the folks that want locals will get them and allow me to take some of the good multi-day trips. I know of three people senior to me that will be bidding the same way I do. Last month I was shocked to see that my bidding strategy had worked better than I expected. I only hope that that same luck will continue.

For April we have 465 total total pairings (for FAs).


165 are on the CRJ200
300 are on the CRJ700

Pairing lengths for April include,

280 Locals
85 Two-day trips
23 Three-day trips
77 Four-day trips


In March we had 368 total trips.


138 are on the CRJ200
230 are on the CRJ700


Pairing lengths for March included,


163 Locals
60 Two-day trips
63 Three-day trips (are are crap compared to last month)
82 Four-day trips