Juniority June 2021 (compared to April 2021)

 Here is a fun one; comparing the Juniority from the month before last to now. Enjoy.

Juniority - April 2021

If you are wondering what seniority looks like at SkyWest (for flight attendants) this is my "juniority" report. One year ago, we were all mostly sitting around. This year I think we're in for a lot less sitting around once Summer gets here. Either way, in the area of PBS bidding seniority fluctuates month to month. Below is the tally for April compiled using the Bid Information page and seniority list. 

Bidding During the Apocalypse

Crazy times. Mad times. Fun times. Bid Times.

Bid times... During the Apocalypse. 

In the words of Drew Carey, "The rules are made up and the points don't matter." Though unlike his show Whose Line Is It Anyway, the paychecks are real and quality of life is dependent upon what we do during these five days, the bidding window. I have always looked at PBS as if it were a 1980's Dos Prompt game that I had to figure out and get good at. I cut my teeth bidding in COS when the base went through several dramatic changes. I learned the "game" of the system to get a better paycheck, overnights or specific days off. That is exactly what we have to do here and now. That is how I must look at it, especially since it helps keep my sanity. 

First thing is first. The Bid Info page gives the overview. Denver has been hit pretty hard, finally, after being well off for April and partially May. DEN FA's have 158 Guaranteed Lines. For comparison, in December 2019, DEN had 254 guaranteed lines. While that is a 38% drop in lines looks bad, the problem isn't in the lines but in the average credit is 77 hours. The company has such low average hours because it is spreading what little flying there is, out. Imagine if the average was 98 hours! With the amount of pairings there are, that might mean as little as 100 lines (if that, probably less).

Now, the silver lining is that SIA signed an MOU that will allow line flight attendants to bid down to a very low amount of hours (0 hours, on paper) and allow bidding up to 100 hours. Still, unless they award a 70-100 more VTO's in DEN, flying is going to be super thin. Looking at where I sit in the seniority (63/346 or 18.2%), I have a good chance at being awarded 82-ish hours but probably not much more.

I would compare May to June, here, but as we know May's award was entirely cancelled and new pairing were created in its wake. Basically, how you bid and what you were awarded in May was all for nothing. Going into it, the name of the game would have been to be awarded the highest credit trips, because cancellation pay is still a thing and you wouldn't be flying half the work. I suspect that we'll see a few similar cancellations in June, but not to the scale that we saw in May or April.

In DEN the ER7 flying is way down. Way, way, down. So I probably won't get any ER7 trips even though there are some decent paying ones.

As far as those pairings go, I'm not seeing any that I really like. They run the gambit of a few being really high credit (a few I saw around 29 hour, four-days) but the most being really low credit. Almost all have crazy-long sits on turns and very short overnights. Hardly a single trip that I would consider good. Those long turns and short overnights will certainly produce two things - delays and frustrations - while going into the thick of Thunderstorm season. Adding more days flying in order to meet average credit and we could see folks working 16 - 18 days for only 77 hours of pay. Go work at a starbucks. You'll get paid the same for less work.

My advice for those of you not taking VTO, brace for some terrible frustration or intentionally bid reserve since that guaranteed pay check is easier than an average line will pay. Still, I hate reserve life. I want to fly. I'm going to suck it up.

*Update, 5/13/20 - CQ was cancelled again for June. I DQ July 1  31. Sucking it up is what I do. That doesn't mean I am good at it.

**Update 5/14/20 - So DEN had 100 FA's be awarded VTO. That changes my bid seniority to 34 instead of 63. Time to refine my bidding strategy entirely, only 20 hours left until bid closes.

Juniority December 2019

It has been two years since I last did a "Juniority" post. Since then two new domiciles have opened, DFW and LGA. It seems that the amount of reserves in each domicile has stabilized when compared to previous years. The past was rough. That was why I left Colorado Springs for Denver. Honestly, I still consider Colorado Springs to be a de facto closure, but that's in the past and here we are walking into 2020. If this month sucked, you can make the next better. Be savvy. Merry Christmas!

A Lot of Change

After about two years of being down, I have the blog back up. It is still loaded with good tips and good historical observations, but a lot has changed. No longer are we bidding from the 10th-18th now. It is a smaller five day window.

We have lots of new aircraft and lots of new flying and employees. Those of us have have stuck around this long are few and far between!

This blog might still help someone bid well. I hope it does and for that I am glad to have the blog back up.



Merry Christmas,
Ron

December 2017 Juniority

November 2017 Juniority

Happy Thanksgiving 2017 from your internet bidding companion. 

September Award and October Bid

Greetings Readers or the Lack Thereof,

I won't be doing a video this month since I haven't attracted the additional viewers I wanted to. There are a couple other reasons that make me not want to continue that... but I'll at least try to blog for my own benefit and if it helps you, fantastic.

In September my PBS line award consisted of two layer ones, a layer three and a layer four. My last video explains that the lack of flying was pretty severe. The award was what I expected even though I cringe at the thought. October has turned out to be nearly an exact copy of September. It is frustrating to say the least.

We have 213 total trips for October. We had 212 in September. Frustrating.

There are 61 bidding flight attendants, just like September. Okay.

18 reserves in COS. Still the highest percentage of reserves in a domicile in the company. Meanwhile SAN and BOI have ZERO reserves. Super Frustrating.

Like last month, ORD's domicile alone has over 35 pairings that overnight in COS. They're all multiple FA parings too... so, 70 opportunities a month that I could potentially hold an overnight in COS if I were based there. What about DEN? What about LAX? How many crews a night overnight in my domicile? How many take trips from us? It is a lot. It is a massive amount. Heck, more than half of ORD's pairings are on birds that I have specifically spent hundreds and hundreds of hours working on... but now Colorado Springs isn't good enough to get work those anymore. Sorry for the rant, but it is terribly frustrating that I'm in a domicile surround by out-of-domicile newbies who don't even know we have a domicile here. I've been in that position before. Overnighting in PSP or FAT or TUS. TUS is the only one who didn't fair well. After PHX opened, TUS died. I don't even understand why they keep it open with the 6 crews that they have there. I'm afraid that is what is happening to COS. It is sad. PSP and FAT are currently fairing much better than we are.

If I look at my line award for September, I can imagine how changes to my bid might effect me. Still, now is the time that I need to start looking to November and December. If this gets any worse I will be forced to transfer. October's line award is going to give me the information I need.

October 2017 Juniority

September 2017 Juniority

September '17 Bid

August Line Award, looking to September and More!

How to Clean Luggage Wheels.

If you are a crewmember... you'll probably need to do this at some point.

How I Pack My Luggage

This isn't such a hot topic, but one that there are folks who want to know. How do you pack clothing for a four-day trip? I hope you enjoy the video.

July Bid & Award 2017

July Juniority 2017 Vlog

July 2017 Juniority

Here is the PBS Bid info put into a graph. Where would your seniority land you? 

PBS Backdoor

It is the 15:20MDT on the 19th of June.

July is going to be a busy month and I have to plan a lot. Most of my planning will revolve around time off. But PBS hasn't published the lines yet. It is really, really, really, annoying. Funny how the PBS computer takes longer to publish the lines when the 18th falls on a weekend. Right?

Anyway, the "back door" has just become accessible. I am currently looking at my time off while everyone else is wondering about theirs.

 Here is how to view the back door:

Three Years Later

Salutations,

I am back! After three years I am starting to think that I may try to do this again, but maybe in a different fashion than before. Anyone like videos?

December 2014

I woke up this morning after a twenty-one hour three day trip in a haze. Thank God for coffee, this past trip really drained me! Mainly, our biggest problems on the trip were related to the super cold weather that we experienced this week. I went to work on Monday the 10th at 8:00am and it was 60º F. When I reported at 7:00am the next day it was 10º.  Last night, walking out to my snow covered car it was -1º. We're nearly a full month away from winter too. Brace yourselves! This isn't going to be an easy winter. And brace yourselves for the bidding nightmare of December. This is always the craziest month for bidding!

Working on Christmas isn't fun, but it is necessary for some. Us included. We still have a job to do. Now, our job isn't like all the others but there are some that know exactly how we feel. Keep it in perspective. There is a duty, a responsibility that has to be accomplished. I simply hope that if you're working a Christmas day that it is uneventful like these firefighters. Scenarios involving emergencies aren't fun and heaven forbid anyone experience that on a day that should be a resoundingly joyful occasion. Should you work on Christmas at least find solace in your fellow crewmembers.



I am sure all of you still want Christmas off, don't we all? I am no exception, so I'll explain what I do to try and hold Christmas off. I have explained this all before in my 2012 How to Bid for a Holiday post, but I suppose I could use a bit different semantics to drive home the point.


1. Determine how many trips fall on or over December 25. 

In Colorado Springs there are nine CRJ200 trips that fall on or over Dec 25. There are eight CRJ700 trips that fall on or over Dec 25 too. With the 700 (or any dual flight attendant aircraft) you'll have to multiply it by two to account for forward and aft positions, so sixteen plus nine equals 25. Twenty-five trips that fall on or over December 25 in Colorado Springs.

2. Determine  how many people junior to you will be "CN'ed" one of the twenty-five trips (if PBS actually works in reverse seniority for the distribution of those 25 trips). 

In Colorado Springs there are seventy flight attendants bidding. For December there are fourteen reserve lines. Seventy minus fourteen equals 56. Fifty-six is also the number of the Targeted Line Holders number in Colorado Springs. There could be some fluctuation in the number of actual reserves but, there are still 14 guaranteed reserve lines.

3. Apply the number of line holders within domicile seniority who will be awarded a trip on or over Christmas. 

We're trying to determine how far up the seniority list the CN demon will travel. Again, this is assuming that PBS will actually award in reverse seniority the trips that everyone is bidding to avoid. From the most junior projected line holder to the most junior "CN'ed" line holder is (56 - 25 = 31) thirty-one. So, in a perfect world from the 31st person in the seniority list to the first, they should be able to hold December 25th off. 

4. Apply the seniority of the must junior "non-CN'ed" to your relative domicile seniority.

I am number 29/70. So, in theory I should hold Christmas off by two more junior to me. Now, that is assuming two things. First, PBS works as advertised. Second, I don't screw up my bid and force it into the "eighth layer". That eighth layer is the CN/PN layer. If PBS cannot (or chooses not to) finish your award within your seventh layer it progresses to the final layer, the unpublished 8th layer (The PBS does-what-it-wants layer), to build a line of its choosing for you. 

5. Bid wisely.

I don't want to give PBS any excuse not to complete my line after my seventh layer. If I formulate a bidding strategy based on the information I just discovered, I need to make sure that I bid for every single pairing except those that fall on or over Christmas by my seventh layer in order to ensure I can hold it off. In other words, my last layer had better have only December 25 off and nothing else or I could open myself up for a disastrous CN.