December 2012: How to Bid for a Holiday

Don't attend your own funeral, bid wisely.

The title of this post is self explanatory. There are lots of flight attendants who don't know how to bid to begin with but when it comes to a holiday month, things get crazy for everyone (unless you have been awarded vacation)! There aren't many flight attendants who consider all the possibilities, I suggest you do. Several times I have seen bids where a flight attendant has just thrown in some days off and called it good. That's a problem... but it can be an advantage to me or junior folks if the senior people bid poorly! I am even reluctant to talk about this because, obviously senior folks that bid poorly gives the junior folks in a domicile (like me) an advantage. However, I should address this problem because that's what I do on this blog. I educate (or at least blog about it) so someone can educate themselves. Also, I thought I would explain some of the strategies I employ during a holiday month.


First, let's look at some stats.

Bid Info from SWOL.

I found it ironic that when looking back on the December 2011's post, there were again 28 trips on or over Christmas Day just like this December. Even more ironic is that in December 2011 I had roughly the same seniority that I do for this year. But, of course, the bad news of December 2012 is that there are less FA's bidding in COS. We have 63 this year. We had 67 in 2011. So, you might say to yourself, the loss of four flight attendants isn't so bad, right? If we were talking about SLC, I would say that's a correct assumption. In COS however, 4 flight attendants make up roughly 7% of the domicile. While my number in COS has increased, my seniority ranking ratio has decreased slightly because of the loss of these flight attendants. Funny too, the RSR for COS report the exact opposite. He said we have "4 extra F/As in base". I do not know what he's looking at. We do not have any extra flight attendants. In fact, if you look at the standing bid list there are a couple people awaiting a TDT into COS and they haven't been awarded it. That is why our bid package average is so high. Ninety hours on average.

What are some strategies for bidding in December? Well, I'd say the main thing you need to know is that everyone wants the holiday off. Plain and simple. On the rare occasion that there may be one or two people who don't care if they work on a holiday, they still want to go to a party or be with friends and family. So, holding holidays off becomes a big problem. Especially when, in COS, there are 28 trips that fall on or over Christmas for December 2012.

If everyone wants the particular day off, then it is crucial that you understand that bidding during a time like this is a game of errors. The person(s) who make the least amount of errors wins. What errors am I talking about? Bidding too restrictively. Ever heard of a PN or CN? Yeah, that's the result of bidding too restrictively for your seniority. That is a sure fire way to work a terrible trip over Christmas. If the folks senior to you bid too restrictively, you win.

Math is a good way to see where you stand in holding a day off. Now, I'm not mathematician, but this is easy. Here is what you do: In PBS, find how many trips fall on or over Christmas Day in your domicile. Then, note the amount of bidding FA's and the number of reserve lines. In COS there are 63 flight attendants. Subtract the 6 reserve lines from that so then you have the number of FA's eligible to be awarded one of these trips: 57. Then subtract the amount of trips on or over Christmas, 28, from the 57 and you'll get the number of people who will have Christmas Day off in the domicile: 29. So, if each flight attendant in COS bids correctly I will be working Christmas as I am number 30. Remember though, there are lots of flight attendants who bid incorrectly, so I have an advantage. Where seniority falls, being savvy succeeds.

Bidding too restrictively in December, for me, looks like this: Ouch. Now, there is the possibility that you would bid overly conservative. I did that in 2010. That looks like this: Ouch. What I want you to notice in these two posts are how the illustrated layers look. On the first one, my green lines are rather short. On the second, they're overly large. Now, if you are going to pick on either of these, the overly large (or more conservative) bid is what you want. I think my bid December 2011 was as close to perfect as I can get. Those three bids (2009, 2010, 2011) remind me of the story of Goldilocks. Take good note of it. The goal is to bid just right for your seniority.

One trick most people don't consider is the minimum days off between work blocks. The default is two days off between work blocks. In example, if I am awarded a work block that finishes on the 24th, I have the 25th and 26th off by default. If you back it up a day: work block finishes on the 23rd, I have the 24th and 25th off by default. The main point of using this feature strategically is that if PBS has to force another pairing on your schedule, it can't override the default without you bidding to override it. There is a problem with the default though, it decreases the variables of eligible trips you can be awarded. So, I will bid one day off between work blocks in some layers (usually the first couple layers) and keep the default in others. This is where a good understanding of bidding is invaluable. This trick won't do you any good if you don't understand the fundamentals. Check out the post How to Bid, that post isn't a exhaustive concordance, but it makes for a decent crash course.

Example of a bad trip over Christmas day,

You always need a fail-safe though, and Holiday months are no different. If you simply are not senior enough or cunning... lucky enough to hold the holiday off, you have to have a backup plan. As in most cases my layer 7 becomes just that for me. If you are going to work a trip on Christmas Day, you might as well pick out which trip(s) you'd rather work. No one wants to fly 6 legs and end up in Canada (seen right) on Christmas Day (unless you're actually from London, ON, then it would be cool.) I have specifically bid for two pairings on Christmas Day in my fail-safe layer, layer seven. That is something you aught to do if you are junior. You can't just throw caution to the wind or else you may end up with the trip you see here courteous of a CN or PN. Now, after bidding for these fail-safe trips, there are a couple of ways to try to make PBS "solve" or complete your line prior to that fail-safe layer. The first is the line property: Try to finish at this layer.

Try To Finish At This Layer - This preference performs a shuffling process, before it proceeds to processing bids in the next layer. It would take placeonly when the system cannot build a complete line up to this layer. Without this preference in one’s bids, the shuffling process would happen only when a complete line could not be awarded at one’s last layer. With this preference checked in any layer, the shuffling process is forced to take place by considering all preferences from layer 1 up to the checked layer. The objective of this preference is to help crewmembers obtain the most favorable pairings from the higher priority layers.

The second way to try and force PBS to solve is a little more invasive, also a line property: Clear Award/Partial Line.

Clear Award/Partial Line

With this preference, the crewmember can instruct the system to create a complete line that utilizes his or her choices from the layer(s) leading up to the Clear Award/Partial Line preference. If a complete line cannot be awarded based on this first layer(s), the system will conduct a final optimization in this first layer(s) and consider all the available pairings in its pools as a last resort before restarting from the layer designated by the Clear Award/Partial Line preference. The resulting line award from the final optimization would still maximize the crew member’s requests by layers. If the system is forced to employ the Clear Award/Partial Line preference because a line cannot be completed from the first layer(s) through the crew member’s choices or through the final optimization, the system automatically discards all preferences specified in the first layer(s) and begins a new line awarding process on the layer designated by the Clear Award/Partial Line preference. This preference provides for an “all or nothing” form of bidding practice. There is no limit for the number of layers being set with this preference. The Clear Award/Partial Line preference will not honor the reserve bid on the same layer, i.e., the reserve bid on this layer will be ignored.

Fail-safes are never a bad idea, but you need to exhaust every option before you implement the back up plan, right? Keep in mind that if PBS can complete a legal line within global and local constraints, it will regardless if you use the try to finish at this layer or clear award/partial line features. Those two features work to exhaust every option prior to moving to the next layer.

Worst case scenario: If you find that on the 18th things went South, there is always skedplus. Now,  during this time of year, block hours are up way high and reserves are down low. You may not be able to drop anything, period. It is worth a shot though.

Good luck to you. I hope this helps.

Posted with Blogsy