How to Bid

It has been said that the number one contributor (besides seniority) to your happiness as a crew member at SkyWest is the efficient use of PBS. I completely agree with that. This blog has been less instructional than one might imagine, until now. When I first started blogging I originally intended this to be self serving. That changed when I realized the potential for the blog to assist anyone who wanted a little more help. Now that I have a few years worth of posts about how I bid I think it is time that I describe the basic mechanics of how one bids. For those of you who are new to bidding in SkyWest, this post is for you.

If you browse around this blog you will find that, primarily, I have shown how I bid and the results.  There are two main reasons for that. First of all the benefits of keeping a journal are invaluable and I encourage you to journal as well. Journalism is an easy way to remember past mistakes. The knowledge you gain by keeping a journal is truly priceless, especially when we bid only 12 times a year. Secondly, posting my bidding errors... blunders... may help you. I am not too proud to say that I goof up more than the average guy. Hopefully, you will find my mistakes to be helpful.

The Basics of a Bidding System

PBS main page

What is bidding? Well, to start at square one, each month your domicile is given a set of trips (pairings). PBS (Preferential Bidding System) is designed to distribute (award) all of these pairings to the crew members by seniority, system requirements, and legalities. By bidding you are simply requesting one or more of these pairings or reserve lines. If seniority, system requirements, and legalities allow, the pairings you have bid for will be awarded to you. That is the most fundamental aspect of PBS bidding and one that you need fully grasp before moving on. PBS revolves around seniority, regulation, and system requirements but at the end of the day the sole job of PBS is to distribute all the trips in your domicile and across the SkyWest system. PBS is open each month for bidding between the 10th at 9:00am Mountain and the 17th at 9:00am Mountain. Once the clock turns to 9:00am on the 17th, your bid is done like it or not.

Have a friend show you around!

If you are new to the company you might feel a little lost when you log into PBS. It is helpful to have someone show you around. Please keep in mind that the PBS help line is an amazing resource. Those guys know what they're doing. Fact is, there are lots of resources around to help you, so please take advantage of those resource. There is even an "online docs" link on the top left of the PBS screen. Also, Kevin Hyatt has been running live PBS training sessions. You can go to the Bid info page on SWOL for more information. Keep in mind too that there is a lot of bad information and tribal knowledge out there. Not everyone is an expert (including myself) that makes resources like the PBS helpline even more valuable. Don't take any wooden nickles!

Preferential Bidding System Layers 

Prioritize Layers Screen displays your seven layers
and the amount of trips you are bidding for out of the total
in your domicile (seen right layer 1: 2/304= 0.7%).

I suppose that the next fundamental aspect of PBS is the layer system. You need to understand that PBS allows you seven layers for your bid. One PBS guru described it as seven tries for success. Think of these seven layers as seven separate requests for pairings (trips). These layers can be viewed in your "Prioritize Layers" page which is one of the links to the left hand side of PBS. An analogy to the layers are seven separate wish lists that work together (example: "I want this, but if I can't have it, I want this" times seven). When PBS goes to award you pairings on the 18th, your first layer is where PBS begins searching to award you trips. Depending on your seniority and legalities (if the pairing has not been awarded to a senior crew member nor violates a regulation/legality/system requirement) you will be awarded the trip(s) from your 1st layer. If PBS cannot complete a legal line (or a line from within your bid constraints & system requirement) from your first layer, it moves to the next layer searching for other trip(s) to complete your line. Your layers work together, so often times you could be awarded trips from multiple layers until your line "solves". When it solves, PBS is finished and does not move to any further layers. If PBS cannot complete your line by your seventh and final layer (oh-no moment) PBS has to move to the "N" Layer". The N layer is the invisible eighth layer where the computer awards you a pairing(s) outside of your seven bidding layers in order to complete your line since it was unable to do so from what you had bid, regardless if the N has a C code or a P code. Do not buy in to the tribal knowledge that some one person edits your schedule to "Company Need" (BS terminology made up by mad people) a trip on you. That's just stupid. The company needs all the flying covered! It doesn't discriminate, unless you are the junior crewmember or had made a bidding error, in that case you've got the target on your back to be awarded a trip you didn't bid for simply by default.

Three Roads

There are three ways that one goes about bidding for a line. Obviously, as you bid for a line you are actually bidding for pairings (trips) to complete a line, but there are different ways one can go about bidding for those pairings. I will describe the three basic ways of bidding. Note, these three means can occasionally overlap. I am not telling you to bid this way or that (your tastes and seniority determine how you should bid), I am simply attempting to describe the basic mechanics of bidding. Please, be responsible and take ownership of your own bid.

1. Reserve and Composite Lines

2. Pairing Criteria

3. Pairing Specific

Reserve and Composite Lines

Reserve lines in COS for FAs during the month of September.

When you were first out on line as a new hire you were most likely on reserve (there are only a few rare exceptions). For flight attendants, reserve lines usually go junior, very junior. I only know two or three flight attendants who will, on occasion, bid reserve when their seniority would allow a line. If you are in the later 80% of a domicile, you had better pick out the reserve line(s) that you'd like to bid for. Except on the rare rare occasion of having little-to-no reserves, usually the last 15-20% of a domicile are reserve line holders.

Reserve lines are cut and dry. They are actually true lines (or "hard lines") that you simply select and assign priority in the prioritize layers page. There is no use in bidding for days off or report times when it comes to hard lines. The line you bid for either has the day off you want or it doesn't. Those reserve lines are hard, they are complete, where are a line holder bids for days off and different trips and what not. When bidding for a reserve line you need only bid for the hard line(s) that has what you want. There no other factors that would prohibit you from holding a hard line besides seniority.

*Update 1/30/2013

Bidding for reserve no longer has hard lines. Instead, flight attendants can bid for reserve days. Here is the manual for bidding reserve from the March 2013 bid forward.

Avoid Reserve

Assume that you are junior in the seniority but within the "targeted lines" range and you want to avoid reserve. Often times you simply can't avoid reserve, although there is a simple strategy to avoid reserve. Simply make sure that you have bid for 100% of the pairings in one of your initial layers (1-3) and enable the "avoid reserve" function from the line properties section (see below). If there are enough pairings left to create a full line, that's what you'll get. If PBS has a few pairings left but cannot complete a full line, you end up with a partial line or "composite line". Typically, a composite line will have three or four trips awarded and crew support later adjusted selected days off into reserve availability. Bidding "avoid reserve" doesn't ensure you are given a composite line (seniority and luck does that) but if you are "on the cusp" of being a line holder this strategy is your best bet. I would would suggest bidding "clear award/partial line" & reserve lines in your final layer (layer 7) just to ensure that you're given the reserve line of your choice should you be unable to hold a full or composite line.

The number of reserve lines fluctuate monthly as do regular lines and the amount of flying. Always keep that in mind! Over the Summer 2012, we had domiciles that had no reserves (very rare) and there was a time three years ago when sitting for years on reserve was a reality for some. Each month you should view the line information on SkyWest Online - Operations - PBS - Bid Info. That is where the number of guaranteed lines/targeted lines/reserve lines can be viewed during each month's bidding window. When I have blogged about Juniority, that's where I get my data. Apply those numbers to your domicile seniority and you easily know if you should bid reserve, a line, or shoot for a composite.

Pairing Criteria

When you are a line holder you bid for pairings to create your line. If you are in the 50-80% of domicile seniority, bidding pairing criteria may work best for you. At the later of line holder seniority it is difficult to bid for and be awarded specific pairings, so bidding for pairing criteria helps you select and bid for multiple pairings that have similar criteria. This is most easily done in the pairings page. The pairings page works like an advanced Google search engine. You can search and bid for trips on days, types of trips, overnights, credit, equipment, length of trips and so on. I use the pairings page to do 85% of my bidding. It is especially handy in sifting through the trips I want to bid for and the ones I don't want.



Pairings page, with the search engine below.

 

Paringing Page

With the Pairing page, it isn't necessary that you select the individual pairings below. That is the difference between bidding for specific pairing verses pairing criteria. Also, you don't have to bid criteria solely using the pairings search engine. It may be a little easier to see what pairings match your criteria with the pairings search engine, but you could simply bid criteria via the Pairing Properties page, seen below. 

Pairings Properties page options
 is an alternative mean of bidding criteria.

Pairing Specific

I usually like to find pairings that have high credit, say 6 hours average credit per duty period or better. When you input the criteria in this search engine all the pairing that match are shown below. You can either pick out the specific pairings below or you can bid for all of those pairings by clicking on the Make Bids button next to the Search button. The Make Bids button inputs your selected criteria in to the prioritize layers page (your bid).

Close up of the Pairings search engine.

This is an example of the pairings search engine in use.

Stand-ups

Of course, you can search for what ever you want to in the pairing search. This is also the place where you can distinguish between normal trips and stand-ups (continuous duty). Now, I am in a domicile that doesn't have any stand-ups. None! I am the wrong person to ask if you have questions about them, but I do know that if you are in a hub domicile that has stand-ups you can filter between normal trips and stand-ups by selecting the pairing type at the bottom of the pairing search engine. Normal pairings are normal trips, continuous duty pairings are stand-ups.

Pairing ID

On occasion you will find a specific trip that occurs multiple times in a month. Those pairing occurrences all have the same pairing ID number. If you like that pairing and you want to bid for all of the occurrences within the month, you may simply bid for the pairing ID; otherwise you'd be bidding separately for all the individual occurrences. If you just want to bid for all occurrences of the same trip, selecting Bid PairID is the way to go.

 

Highlighted is an example of multiple occurrences of the same pairing.

Line Properties

Like the Pairing Properties page, the Line Properties page gives you several different options to bid for. These can effect your bid more than you'd think. Sometimes it does more harm than good (see here). These Line Properties don't add pairings to your bid, but they do give the pairings in your bid a priority. For example, if the computer is able to assign you one of two trips on the same day, the line properties would give these two trips different priorities. To continue the example, if you have "commutable work blocks" selected in the layer where the computer could assign you one of two pairings, the pairing that is most commutable is the one that has priority and is then the pairings awarded to you. This does work well in large domiciles, but the overuse could do more harm than good. I always tell people to keep it (everything) simple; KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid).

Line Properties page options.

Assign to Layers 

When you have selected the pairings you want to bid for you'll see that they aren't in any layer. Once you have finish selecting these pairings you have to prioritize them in the layers. That's why the Prioritize Layers page is so important. The changes you make in each layer are illustrated in the graph at the top. Each next layer should have (should be bidding for) more pairings than the previous. If not, you are wasting a layer. When you bid for no more pairings in coinciding layers you will see a yellow line at the top of the page for each of the layers that are the same. As you can see in my example below, the number of pairings you are bidding for in each layer is displayed in that layer verses the number of pairings available (to the right of the green bars). Layer one, for me, is bidding for 19 pairings out of the 304 which is 6.3% of the total pairings. In my third layer I am bidding for 47/304 which is 15.5% of the total pairings. In the Prioritize Pairings page you are able to see exactly how your are bidding in each layer.

Same goes for the criteria. Once you've bid for the criteria you want you need to put it into a layer(s). In this example I have only bid for the criteria of minimum average credit per duty period. These examples are taken from the September Bid '12. If you'd like to see the big picture of that bid, please refer to that post.

Also, remember that bidding days off is a form of criteria. Instead of including pairings, bidding for a day off excludes any pairing that falls on that day in the layer you bid for it. Often, crew members will overly bid days off and their total pairing bid becomes extremely limited as a result. That increases the likelihood of catching a CNs and PNs, especially for junior crew members. It is always smart to bid for an excess of pairings as it allows PBS more options to complete a line before it moves to your 'N' layer. Keep in mind that a good trip will always be easier to get rid of (in SkedPlus) than a poor trip since, if you're posting it, another flight attendant would want a good trip.

Layer 1 is highlighted in blue, Layer 3 in red.



You can see the pairing criteria at the bottom of this picture.

In this example I am bidding pairings only, then I include the criteria

of min average credit per dp.

Standing Bid

It is wise to keep a standing bid. A standing bid (inside PBS) is a bid of criteria & line properties that stays dormant month to month. Should you forget to bid or be unable to, the Standing Bid is implemented into you current (non-existent) bid. I'm sure you understand how important it is to keep a standing bid if you have ever forgot to bid. I've done that before, actually February '12. I had started to bid but didn't finish. Because I had selected pairings but not prioritized any my standing bid didn't kick in. That hurt bad! I was too embarrassed to blog about it.

The actual PBS Standing Bid

PBS Standing Bid Criteria

Disclaimer and Summary:

Thou be warned: if a crew member at 90% seniority in their domicile bids exactly as I do, it would end in disaster. If a crew member is in the top 10% and decides to bid exactly as I do, they will despise the bad trips they will get. Please understand that I have purposely left specific direction out of my blog for fear that I might do more harm than good. Everyone has their own personal taste and seniority when it comes to schedule preferences. While I will never tell you how to bid specifically, I hope I have adequately describe how one goes about bidding. This is a lot of information to retain, even in this condensed form, but it is so important that you bid efficiently and correctly for your seniority. There are 7 days to bid each month so that makes 84 days a year you can practice and perfect how you bid. Truly, there is no better means by which you can improve your quality of life besides gaining seniority than bidding well. Be savvy and be a nerd. It helps more than you can imagine.