June '10 Bid's Award & Reason Report

My strategy paid off and my award is more of what I want!

I received 104 hours of credit and 11 days off. Not exactly beautiful, but it is far better than I was expecting from June (see Juniority post)! My reason report is pretty consistent with what I am trying to accomplish too. I had two replaced/not-awarded...line constraints. And I hate line constraints. But these pairings being replaced allowed me two be awarded two more trips for more pay. Max Credit is the culprit in this situation and I could not be happier with him. In all, my bid solved at layer 5 which you can view on my Strategy post for the June bid. My layer 5 was only 21% of the total pairing pool! This would indicate that most people senior to me aren't bidding for these type of trips. Which, I didn't even include locals in my bid until layer 7 so my guess would be that the majority of folks senior to me are bidding locals and the occasional high paying multi-day trips. At this point I have a firm grasp of how to bid in my domicile although with the way things are going I, and many other, may have to transfer to DEN before too long.

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

Hello June 17th!

This morning I put the finishing touches on my bid for June. I was satisfied with it last night but it never hurts to double check it. Especially after last month when I made a simple error that effected my award negatively. To be honest, my bid will never be exactly what I want. I doubt any of ours will be perfect. Each month I'll dream of 23 hour three-day trips with 140 hours and 12 days off. That would be my ideal scenario. Reality is that we work for SkyWest so each month brings new challenges and new excitement. Which is why, for me, this blog provides a damage control that can't be found otherwise. I certainly hope for those of you who will read this that it provides you with more of the same... if not better.

My bid this month was a little more conservative than I normally make it with my layer seven well exceeding my seniority ranking ratio. I spent a lot more time analyzing my line properties than I normally do. The same goes for my removing pairings. I removed all the 30 hour layovers. Reason is, when bidding for average credit per duty period, these pairings are included. So even though they're only 18 hour four-day trips, they're considered to be 6+ hours per duty period (which is less than the 24-hour four day I'm trying to bid for). Since these pairings include the 3:45 minimum guarantee for the day off and no duty those, along with carry-in pairings, are ones I want to avoid. The only way to remove a pairing is by going into the View Pairing Set, selecting the day of the pairings, and removing the individual pairings.

So this is me. I hope our bids turn out well!

Juniority, May 17th, 2010

Ever since I started to journal my bids I have really noticed how little I knew about how the flying works. It seems few people do. Each month there is little consistency in COS. In fact, the only consistency we currently have are the Chicago round-trip locals. On top of that, COS flying seems to rotate around how many crew members we have each month. Any time people transfer out we are reduced little by little. I haven't documented the staffing numbers because I used to believe that had little impact on COS. I have come to notice that even the slightest change can make a monumental difference in the flying we're given. Funny enough, even with positive changes, like the IAD - COS start-up, there still hasn't been much progress in the amount of flying COS is given. What's more is that there is an average of three out of domicile crews, a night, staying in COS. That is rather frustrating. It is also something I hope to combat if I am elected as a SIA representative. However, with SIA there are more pressing matters which must be confronted first. Either way, I hope to be a catalyst for positive change.

I have made a few charts to better illustrate how the flying changes month to month. Be advised, this material may not be suitable for all readers as the flying changes violently and sometimes without cause.

June '10 Bid's Nuts and Bolts

COS has a reduction in flying yet again. Ugh! Even with the addition of Washington Dulles flying we have still been shorted it seems. On the positive note, the average block hours rose. So even though I might not see 90 hours, I will see (predominately) efficient trips. As you'll see, things aren't looking good for COS as a domicile. June-August tend to be our busiest months but COS in June has less flying than in January! I don't get it. The most frustrating thing about it is that there is no rhyme or reason and there is nothing I can do about it.

For June we have 398 total pairings (FA &FF).

136 are on the CRJ200
262 are on the CRJ700

Pairing lengths for June include:

191 locals
82 Two-day trips
28 Three-day trips
97 Four-day trips

Compare that to:
May we had 424 total pairings (FA & 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