October '12

Greeting and welcome to the October bid. October marks the Fall season. While the temperatures drops and leafs change color it is easy to see that we are getting close to the Holidays. Summer is gone and Winter isn't too far now. From now until 2013, no bid will be easy. Keep a sharp eye out on the pairings and be savvy. Happy Halloween and the beginning for Holiday bidding.

I am rather surprised to see that the pairing count for October doesn't descend much at all! Actually we have more pairings in October than September. In September we had 304 pairings and for October it is 349! Now, back in 2009 we had 391. So there has been change but it isn't as dramatic as it could be. Also it is fun to think that back in 2010 MSP was my home away from home. I haven't seen MSP except on a couple UA flights this year. That flying we're doing today may be done by someone else in the future.

Get this. One of the things I have noticed for October '12 is the return of Delta flying. Granted, it is all on the 200 but it has been a year, at least, since I flew DL paint. I know that we haven't had any Delta pairings in the past several months, so that will help COS out a little.

Halloween is always a bit difficult to hold off. Treat it like you would any holiday. When bidding, you had better have a contingency plan in place if you can't hold it off.

Halloween is also more difficult for me in that I have been awarded time off the weekend before.

My plan worked for the most part. I would have preferred to have been awarded more layer one trips, but it is obvious those trips were too good for those senior to me to pass up. Not too bad. Not bad at all.