May '10 Bid's Award & Reason Report

Boy, was I mad! After all the work and thought about the pairings as I put into the May bid, I forgot to do one of my default settings and my award wasn't good. Here is what I was awarded:

So, here are my lessons learned. I have to reform my standing-bid list and implement it with every bid, so I don't goof something easy like that. I should also keep my 'waive min days off' engaged into layer 6, possibly layer 7.

I was so put out with myself when the bid was published that I couldn't even post. I am happy to report that Skedplus has been very good to me. I now have 122 hours for May and only three original trips I was awarded.

May '10 Bid's Strategy in Bidding and The Christmas Tree

Back to the j-o-b!

This is a monumental month for us as we now have several advancements to PBS. Bidding down to 62.5, waving default minimum days off, bid to wave reserve (if you're on the cusp), and buddy bidding. This has been a much needed update to a dinosaur system. Don't misunderstand me, we still have lots of things that could be better, but I imagine a lot of us will be more likely to be awarded what we ask for. I might just be able to be awarded 100 hours each month or more! That would be nice! Skedplus is fun, but it gets really scary some months if there isn't a lot of flying to go around.

Also this is the last month for Scott Maclean who was the SAPA RSR for DEN/COS. A lot of people blamed him for the degradation of COS trips. Hopefully, if those critics were right, we'll actually get a bit of consistency and an increase in the average block hours.

Rumors are still flying around at a normal pace. MX in MSP are convinced that there will be a crew domicile open in MSP. As it is we are taking a lot of Pinnacle's old routes out of there, but they're taking a lot of our ATL routes. At their height, Pinnacle was flying 130 daily departures out of MSP for Northwest. I'm not to sure how many we are doing or are projected to do but we are doing a lot.

Here's how I've bid this month:

For May we have all our OJI's back and a couple new transfers. We also had several of our reserves transfer out since they can hold lines in other domiciles. I've bid a little more conservative this month and since I rarely get any of my first layer, I included several more trips in layer one hoping I'll get lucky with one or two. My seniority ratio has jumped to 61.3% but I don't think that will effect my bid that badly.

Today is the 18th so, even though it is a Sunday, I hope to get see my award today. This is the first Sunday I have had off in a long time and it is primarily because I have recurrent this week. Wish me luck, I think I'll encounter a lot of heat.

May '10 Bid's Nuts and Bolts

Would you believe we have a reduction in flying on one of the busiest months of the year? That's right. Can I scream now?

I'm going to double check my math here but it looks like we have 102 out-of-domicile overnighting crews in COS! COS has three overnighting out of domicile crews a night. And our trips suck! With a couple exceptions, they are terrible. Only 19 pairings (FA and FF) excluding locals, are above six hours average credit per duty period. 19!!! In my book that means that out of the 424 pairings we have in May, 405 of those are not what I want. On top of that all of our OJI FA's are back to the line now so competition is going to be nasty. I'll be pleasantly surprised if I come away with anything better than layer 4. MSP flying equals 32 pairings or 17% of our '200 flying. Lord knows I'd love to see a MSP domicile, but if they opened one I'd be very close to reserve in COS with the way things are now. This really adds fuel to the "they're wanting us to transfer out of COS" fire. When you compare our trips to DEN, ORD, and SLC, we are bottom feeders. Now, I'm not saying that we should have priority over these domiciles but I am saying that the dispersion of flying is ridiculously in the large domiciles' favor. That really makes me want to jump ship or better yet, apply at Southwest when they start hiring again! Now, on the positive side, our three day trips look better than they ever have. That's a start.

For May we have 424 total pairings (FA and FF).

186 are on the CRJ200
238 are on the CRJ700

246 Locals
59 Two-day parings
25 Three-day pairings
94 Four-day pairings


In April we had 465 total total pairings (for FAs).

165 are on the CRJ200
300 are on the CRJ700

Pairing lengths for April included,

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