September '10 Bid's Award & Reason Report

There it is folks. I hope luck was on your side. Depending on where you're based you are either smiling or crying. That's a very common story and each month is 100% different than the previous. In my case, my gamble with a carry-in pairing worked. It is a good paying trip and the training pre-assignment adds just enough to give me 87 hours. I was thinking I'd be on the low end. Especially because there weren't as many efficient trips out there. I was luck enough have been awarded three high credit trips that no one under me wanted (apparently). Now for me, eight days off would be something of a miracle but it is just not something I can afford so I'll be on skedplus the 8pm MDT on the 24th going hog-wild trying to pick up another efficient trip or two.

September '10 Bid's Strategy in Bidding and Christmas Tree

So as you may have noticed, my bid wasn't as extravagant as in the past. Knowing that COS was a 'B' package month, I didn't believe that I'd be given much flying. That's one of the reasons that I wanted to keep the carry-in pairing I was awarded in August. Normally a carry-in pairing will hurt your bid but in this case it helped. When the domicile is stretched so thin any little addition to your schedule (training or carry-ins).

I also did a couple things that I usually don't do. I bid to "avoid landing at city" YQT.  In the COS bid package there were about 20 trips with a 30+ hour YQT overnight. Most of those fell on Saturday. I'm sure YQT is nice and I'm sure that those flying that trip will not be disappointed but Saturdays in September-December are holy to me. That's right.

NCAA Football season is a few weeks away! These YQT trips weren't efficient and left me in another country when it came time to watch the pigskin fly. Now, I could have bid to avoid specific pairings which I did in the June Bid Strategy post, but like I mentioned in the July Bid Strategy, sometimes it is just easier to avoid the specific city rather than bid avoid some 20 specific pairings.

September '10 Bid's Nuts and Bolts

Welcome to the seasonal slump in flying. The Nuts and Bolts say it all...

In September COS has 351 total pairings. FA and FF.
141 are on the CRJ 200.
210 are on the CRJ 700.

Trip lengths for Spetember include:

128 Locals.
94 Two-day trips.
30 Three-day trips.
99 Four-day trips.


In August COS had 474 total pairings.
188 are on the CRJ 200.
286 are on the CRJ 700.

Trip lengths for August included:

250 Locals
112 Two-day trips
45 Three-day trips
112 Four-day trips


Having some eight guaranteed reserves is both a blessing and a curse. Finally, we'll be able to drop a trip. But with as little flying as we have, I can't imagine there will be lots being dropped. It is just so violent of a change that it is really hard to swallow. Several who had a line in August will be on reserve yet again. That is very demoralizing. A little better news for us is that we officially have a new SAPA RSR for DEN/COS. V. Tensei. There has always been a little discontent in having a single person represent two domiciles, especially domiciles that share so much flying. One recent RSR really made a lot of COS crews mad in telling them that if they wanted better flying they could transfer to DEN. While there is a bit of truth to it, I hope that this RSR will fight to keep some good flying in COS and not just an occasional pairing or two. 

Good luck bidding and I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. 

August '10 Bid's Award & Reason Report

Here was my August line:

Nothing to really brag about. August started the downward trend of seasonal reduced flying. I got the carry-in pairing that has turned out to not be so bad. Typically I avoid carry-in pairings but with a reduction in flying I can use that to get a few extra hours for September which will be a very, very, very slow month (in comparison).