June '10 Bid's Strategy in Bidding and The Christmas Tree

Hello June 17th!

This morning I put the finishing touches on my bid for June. I was satisfied with it last night but it never hurts to double check it. Especially after last month when I made a simple error that effected my award negatively. To be honest, my bid will never be exactly what I want. I doubt any of ours will be perfect. Each month I'll dream of 23 hour three-day trips with 140 hours and 12 days off. That would be my ideal scenario. Reality is that we work for SkyWest so each month brings new challenges and new excitement. Which is why, for me, this blog provides a damage control that can't be found otherwise. I certainly hope for those of you who will read this that it provides you with more of the same... if not better.

My bid this month was a little more conservative than I normally make it with my layer seven well exceeding my seniority ranking ratio. I spent a lot more time analyzing my line properties than I normally do. The same goes for my removing pairings. I removed all the 30 hour layovers. Reason is, when bidding for average credit per duty period, these pairings are included. So even though they're only 18 hour four-day trips, they're considered to be 6+ hours per duty period (which is less than the 24-hour four day I'm trying to bid for). Since these pairings include the 3:45 minimum guarantee for the day off and no duty those, along with carry-in pairings, are ones I want to avoid. The only way to remove a pairing is by going into the View Pairing Set, selecting the day of the pairings, and removing the individual pairings.

So this is me. I hope our bids turn out well!

Juniority, May 17th, 2010

Ever since I started to journal my bids I have really noticed how little I knew about how the flying works. It seems few people do. Each month there is little consistency in COS. In fact, the only consistency we currently have are the Chicago round-trip locals. On top of that, COS flying seems to rotate around how many crew members we have each month. Any time people transfer out we are reduced little by little. I haven't documented the staffing numbers because I used to believe that had little impact on COS. I have come to notice that even the slightest change can make a monumental difference in the flying we're given. Funny enough, even with positive changes, like the IAD - COS start-up, there still hasn't been much progress in the amount of flying COS is given. What's more is that there is an average of three out of domicile crews, a night, staying in COS. That is rather frustrating. It is also something I hope to combat if I am elected as a SIA representative. However, with SIA there are more pressing matters which must be confronted first. Either way, I hope to be a catalyst for positive change.

I have made a few charts to better illustrate how the flying changes month to month. Be advised, this material may not be suitable for all readers as the flying changes violently and sometimes without cause.

June '10 Bid's Nuts and Bolts

COS has a reduction in flying yet again. Ugh! Even with the addition of Washington Dulles flying we have still been shorted it seems. On the positive note, the average block hours rose. So even though I might not see 90 hours, I will see (predominately) efficient trips. As you'll see, things aren't looking good for COS as a domicile. June-August tend to be our busiest months but COS in June has less flying than in January! I don't get it. The most frustrating thing about it is that there is no rhyme or reason and there is nothing I can do about it.

For June we have 398 total pairings (FA &FF).

136 are on the CRJ200
262 are on the CRJ700

Pairing lengths for June include:

191 locals
82 Two-day trips
28 Three-day trips
97 Four-day trips

Compare that to:
May we had 424 total pairings (FA & FF).

186 are on the CRJ200
238 are on the CRJ700

246 Locals
59 Two-day parings
25 Three-day pairings
94 Four-day pairings

In April we had 465 total total pairings (for FAs).

165 are on the CRJ200
300 are on the CRJ700

Pairing lengths for April included,

280 Locals
85 Two-day trips
23 Three-day trips
77 Four-day trips

May '10 Bid's Award & Reason Report

Boy, was I mad! After all the work and thought about the pairings as I put into the May bid, I forgot to do one of my default settings and my award wasn't good. Here is what I was awarded:

So, here are my lessons learned. I have to reform my standing-bid list and implement it with every bid, so I don't goof something easy like that. I should also keep my 'waive min days off' engaged into layer 6, possibly layer 7.

I was so put out with myself when the bid was published that I couldn't even post. I am happy to report that Skedplus has been very good to me. I now have 122 hours for May and only three original trips I was awarded.

May '10 Bid's Strategy in Bidding and The Christmas Tree

Back to the j-o-b!

This is a monumental month for us as we now have several advancements to PBS. Bidding down to 62.5, waving default minimum days off, bid to wave reserve (if you're on the cusp), and buddy bidding. This has been a much needed update to a dinosaur system. Don't misunderstand me, we still have lots of things that could be better, but I imagine a lot of us will be more likely to be awarded what we ask for. I might just be able to be awarded 100 hours each month or more! That would be nice! Skedplus is fun, but it gets really scary some months if there isn't a lot of flying to go around.

Also this is the last month for Scott Maclean who was the SAPA RSR for DEN/COS. A lot of people blamed him for the degradation of COS trips. Hopefully, if those critics were right, we'll actually get a bit of consistency and an increase in the average block hours.

Rumors are still flying around at a normal pace. MX in MSP are convinced that there will be a crew domicile open in MSP. As it is we are taking a lot of Pinnacle's old routes out of there, but they're taking a lot of our ATL routes. At their height, Pinnacle was flying 130 daily departures out of MSP for Northwest. I'm not to sure how many we are doing or are projected to do but we are doing a lot.

Here's how I've bid this month:

For May we have all our OJI's back and a couple new transfers. We also had several of our reserves transfer out since they can hold lines in other domiciles. I've bid a little more conservative this month and since I rarely get any of my first layer, I included several more trips in layer one hoping I'll get lucky with one or two. My seniority ratio has jumped to 61.3% but I don't think that will effect my bid that badly.

Today is the 18th so, even though it is a Sunday, I hope to get see my award today. This is the first Sunday I have had off in a long time and it is primarily because I have recurrent this week. Wish me luck, I think I'll encounter a lot of heat.