SkedPlus+: The Magical, Monthly, Extravaganza

Imagine that your bid went sour or you forgot to bid (been there). Pretend that your line is really bad. Suppose that PBS gives you 11 days off with 70 hours and 38 hour overnights in the most obscure locations. Yeah, okay, don't imagine that. I want to submit a two-week notice just thinking about that nasty of a schedule. No, I do not have a bad line and I hope that neither do you, but in case you are so unlucky the title of our post says it all. This post is about the magical, monthly, 8:00pm extravaganza: Skedplus. Also, in June we received added incentives for flying. While I doubt that August will be as desperate as July was it is fitting to do a post about Skedplus. Skedplus will be live in a few hours, now.

I know several people that depend on Skedplus. Whether it is to pick up or drop trips, these people live and die (as the saying goes) by a luck-of-the-draw schedule "enhancement" computer program. Maybe you are one or maybe you know one, these folks all have one thing in common, they all know that the 24th is very important.

August '12 Bid Summary

Greetings,

Welcome to the end of Summer. Yeah, already. Well, at least August ends the summer break that most people associate with Summer. So, are you ready for August? No? Me either, but it is time to bid for August so here we go.

July was a tricky month to bid for. There was lots of flying (correction to my July post, July did have more flying than June in COS) and we had a holiday to put up with. August becomes easier to bid for mainly that reason. On the other hand, August may be more difficult. As you know, part-time lines are suspended for August. I have four or five flight attendants senior to me that are part time, so I will certainly be effected. I'm not too happy about that... and neither are the part timers, obviously. My seniority will be effected by the suspension of part time lines. Hopefully it won't be too bad, but I had better be cautious about it. There isn't any sense in bidding like I did last month, the month before, or any other way I have bid before. Sure, I'll keep the same style of bidding but that's about it.

July '12 Bid Summary

Introduction

Welcome to the PBS Journal, my name is Ron and I'm the author of this blog, my personal bidding journal. This post and every post you see here shows how I bid and what I am awarded. Since I am a flight attendant in COS, that does make it rather unique, so take it with a grain of salt, this blog is solely intent on being educational. This particular post happens to be something of a combination of many posts. Typically, I follow a monthly format of two posts that details my bidding process (IE. pairings & bidding and follow up) but that has been more of a challenge as of late. I hope you will excuse the mess, so to speak, and still learn something. I have been doing this blog for a while (despite a couple hiatuses) so there should be something here for you to learn, especially if you are new to SkyWest's bidding.

June '12 Bid Summary

On April 29th, 2012 Levi Ernest Carter was born. The little guy is really laid back and such an easy baby. Mommy is doing good as well and big sister is an awesome big sister! In the future, I may limit my posts to one per month like I am doing today. Welcome to my PBS Journal.

May '12 Bid's Award and Reason Report

Edit 4/20***

My bid solved at layer five this month. That is rather odd considering last month the bid solved at layer one. It took me a little while, but I finally realized what the issue is for the massive shift. The answer is a bit complicated, but it all comes down to the monthly change in flying.