September '10 Bid's Nuts and Bolts

Welcome to the seasonal slump in flying. The Nuts and Bolts say it all...

In September COS has 351 total pairings. FA and FF.
141 are on the CRJ 200.
210 are on the CRJ 700.

Trip lengths for Spetember include:

128 Locals.
94 Two-day trips.
30 Three-day trips.
99 Four-day trips.


In August COS had 474 total pairings.
188 are on the CRJ 200.
286 are on the CRJ 700.

Trip lengths for August included:

250 Locals
112 Two-day trips
45 Three-day trips
112 Four-day trips


Having some eight guaranteed reserves is both a blessing and a curse. Finally, we'll be able to drop a trip. But with as little flying as we have, I can't imagine there will be lots being dropped. It is just so violent of a change that it is really hard to swallow. Several who had a line in August will be on reserve yet again. That is very demoralizing. A little better news for us is that we officially have a new SAPA RSR for DEN/COS. V. Tensei. There has always been a little discontent in having a single person represent two domiciles, especially domiciles that share so much flying. One recent RSR really made a lot of COS crews mad in telling them that if they wanted better flying they could transfer to DEN. While there is a bit of truth to it, I hope that this RSR will fight to keep some good flying in COS and not just an occasional pairing or two. 

Good luck bidding and I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. 

August '10 Bid's Award & Reason Report

Here was my August line:

Nothing to really brag about. August started the downward trend of seasonal reduced flying. I got the carry-in pairing that has turned out to not be so bad. Typically I avoid carry-in pairings but with a reduction in flying I can use that to get a few extra hours for September which will be a very, very, very slow month (in comparison).

August '10 Bid's Nuts and Bolts

July 10th began the bidding for what will be the one of the busiest month of the year for COS and the rest of the OO system. I am just now taking a look at the flying for COS this Sunday morning and I must say that I am a bit shocked. We're down to three reserves for August. That's the lowest we've ever had in COS (to my knowledge). Funny enough, we have just a couple dozen less pairings but with three of our flight attendants out for the month and with five part-timers we will be stretched rather thin and only have three reserves for August, if that many.

August should prove to be the busiest month for the year with the possible exception of December. September on the other hand will be a record decline in traffic. That's just the way the seasonal forecast is. Our industry has become completely dependent on the travel forecast. Spring and Fall tend to be the slower months for air travel where Summer and Winter tend to be the busiest. Of course it wasn't always that way and it has evolved to depend on this system since the market decline of 2008-2009.

For COS, September should be a month where we have lots of reserves. As my Father relies on the season needs of the agriculture industry in Arkansas he would be the first to say, "take it while you can get it!" I suppose we should all take the good with the bad. Whether you're like me and needing the extra flying or if you despise the heavy burden, just wait a month... it will change.

So for August we have, 51 Guaranteed, 55 Targeted, and all of three reserves. We remain a D package average with exactly the same amount of pairings that we had in December, 474.

In August we have 474 total pairings. That includes FA and FF.

188 are on the CRJ 200.
286 are on the CRJ 700.

Trip lengths for August include,

250 Locals
112 Two-day trips
45 Three-day trips
112 Four-day trips

Compared to,


In July we had 488 total pairings.
186 of those are on the CRJ 200.
302 of those are on the CRJ 700.

Trip lengths for July include
264 Locals
123 Two-day trips
20 Three-day trips
81 Four-day trips

July '10 Bid's Award & Reason Report

Probably the best line I have ever had.

Now, the "TT" or company business helps out a little. It is figured in as being worth 10 hours. But look at that! 113 hours and 11 days off! I typically try to fly 120 hours and so I'm one good local away from getting it. But this is honestly the best I have ever been awarded. I wasn't awarded any locals so my layer 4 and 5 was pretty much null and void but that doesn't hurt me! I didn't want locals anyway! I got two of the specific pairings I bid for in layer one and two. Life is swell.

Check out this Reason Report!

I must be doing something right because I managed to avoid the infamous, "Replaced due to line constraints." I mean, this is the ideal bid and award! I wish every month were like this.

July '10 Bid's Strategy in Bidding and Christmas Tree

Greetings July 19th,

This past week I received my tax return. Having bought a house and being the head of household we got quite a bit back. So, like anyone else interested in helping the economy, I bought an iPad. This past week I had a four-day trip and so I brought along my iPad. It works great! I did all of my bidding on it. But I waited to get home to my Mac book before I did my posts because I haven't been able to do the cropped screen shots from my iPad.

So July's bid was one that I changed my strategy on. Like every month, your bid should take into account the monthly and seasonal changes. Looking at the Nuts and Bolts for July it was easy to see that I'd need to add locals into my bid. There were just so many of them and in order for me to be awarded a legal line without falling to my seventh layer (or worse) I would need to change the way I typically bid.

As you can see, I am not bidding to my seniority ratio. Generally that is an excellent rule of thumb but I do not because I typically bid for multi-day trips and the large majority of FA's senior to me bid for locals. It was still risky bidding for 49% in my seventh layer, but I was confident that with July being such a bountiful month I wouldn't have any problem.

I have continued to use my Standing Bid and a starting point for my bidding. My Standing Bid only contains my line properties which is what I have overlooked in the past. It wasn't pretty. I also made a slight modification to my layer three. When I was looking at the View Pairing Set for layer three, I noticed a couple of trips I didn't want to fly... at least in that layer. So the easiest way to remove them from that layer was bidding to avoid YXE.

Well, the bids are out! Time to see if my strategy worked!