December 2012

Welcome to the 100th post here on the PBS Journal. It is fitting that this 100th post is on the eve of the most important and dynamic bid I have seen. December is always an enigma as bidding goes. Throw in flying for five major partners, contract negotiations, and shifting domicile flying and this is nothing less than science. Fortunately, for us as crew members, we simple bid for what our domicile is given. Hopefully the trips you are bidding for are good.

Hopefully there aren't many trips over Christmas, either! There are bound to be some, so a little math will do you lots of good in obtaining a sound idea of what you're faced with. In COS, it ain't pretty. 28 trips (including FA and FF) fall on or over Christmas Day. The problem is that there is only 63 bidding flight attendants in COS. If you divide 28 in 63 that is 44%. So, regardless of seniority, there will be 44% of COS flight attendants working on Christmas day. Turns out that we've lost four junior flight attendants in COS which means that our domicile seniority just got worse. I'm at 47.6% now. Funny enough, last month I was highly considering transferring out of COS. I thought I'd wait until after the new year. I am kicking myself for not getting out of dodge now. Frankly, I think its pathetic that COS will utilize nearly half its flight attendants for flying on Christmas day. November seemed reasonable. There were 16 trips that fell on or over Thanksgiving. For November in COS, that was 25% of flight attendants that would work Thanksgiving Day.

This will be my son's first Christmas, my daughter's fourth. That is what makes this the most important bid I have done. I know the industry well enough to know that there are trips on holidays, but I also know that at SkyWest after 7 holidays, I should be senior enough to hold holidays off. Well, that isn't the case this go around. So, Hopefully my bidding will save me. Skedplus won't, that's for sure.

Good luck to you.

... To Be Continued.