Online Docs
SkyWest
Crew Member Guide to PBS
Table of
Contents
Comparison to
Traditional Bid Lines
System
Functions and Descriptions
(2) Reserve
Pre-Built Line Bid
System logic
with multiple preferences on the same Layer
Bidding
Conflicts – System Response
Bidding Cases
and Bidding Scenarios
Preferential Bidding is a bidding system that allows crew members to “build their own lines”. Crew members can express their preferences for off days, specific pairings, general pairing properties, and line characteristics. The system uses each crew members requests and their pre-assignments (vacation, training, medical, military leave and carry in pairings, etc.) plus their seniority to build their lines. In PBS crew members can construct their work schedules around their personal lives, only limited by the pairings available and their seniority.
Our Preferential Bidding
System “PBS” is designed using unique global optimization techniques to honor
seniority while maximizing overall crew members’ satisfaction. The system produces lines of work that are
legal (FAR’s and contractual requirements) and within the minimum to maximum
line values. Crew member preferences can, if
they so desire, determine purity, cadence, week day
lines, week end lines, local lines, and so on.
Crew members bid from a web based system that is easy to use. The PBS Web site is located by logging into the SkyWest Corporate site, then into Crew Member information and then by selecting the PBS option. The first page displays basic information about the crew member (base, seniority and qualifications) and bidding times and total number of line holders. On the left hand side of the page is a list of hyperlinks (see System Functions and Description for all links)
For example, when you click on Off Days, the system shows a calendar for the bid period. The calendar displays all pre-assigned activities. By clicking on specific dates, the crew members can bid specific off days. By clicking on the Pairings hyperlink, the crew members can bid specific pairings. General bids are made by clicking on the Pairing Properties and Line Properties hyperlinks.
All inputs (bids, pre-assignments, carry-ins and the current month pairings) are collected in a database and then passed to the PBS optimizer to run. The completed lines of work are generated and then passed back to the database. The lines of work are then loaded to CrewTrac and posted to the web site for crew review.
When the lines are
loaded to the web site the crew members will see an easy to read line format.
The line is in a calendar format and the pairings in their
line are displayed just below the line,
all on one screen. There is a note at the top
of the page that is live, by clicking on it enables the crew members to quickly
compare their awarded line vs. their bid.
PBS bidding logic asks the crew members to enter their preferences into the system. By clicking on the Prioritize Layers a crew member can then express which of these preferences are 1st choice, 2nd choice, 3rd …etc., by either checking or un-checking the specific preference in an easy to use table. By creating “choice” layers in the table the crew members are directing the system. The system will build lines based on the preferences checked in the layers.
The system uses layer one first (preferences with the highest priority) when constructing lines. If the system can build a legal line with layer one preference, it will. If not, the system will retain the pairings that were granted and move on to the second layer. The system will search for the pairings that fit the checked preferences in the priority 2 layer and assign those pairings to the line. The system will continue to consider additional layers until a legal line is produced.
The system moves from layer 1 to layer 2 to layer 3 and so on … when one of the following situations has happened:
o Senior crew members have taken your desired pairings, or
o You have asked for pairings that are not in the pairing pool, or
o Your bids conflict with pre-assigned activities, or
o Your bids cannot meet the target line value, or
o Your preferred off days cannot be granted because of required coverage.
If the system has read all the layers and the line is still not complete, then the system will assign additional pairing(s) to the line in order to bring it up to a legal value.
The greatest benefit to crew members is that they can tailor their work schedules to their personal needs.
Additionally:
In traditional bid lines there may be no line you want, for example, the number one pilot who wants both weekends and Thanksgiving off. In hard line such line does not exist, but a line like that would be easy to build in PBS.
Flying a line with mix of pairings. Some people tell us that they don’t like to land in the same airport all month.
Bidding specific days off. You need the third Thursday off because your significant other tells you so.
Other benefits are from the technology; ease of use and speed of bidding, ability to bid from anywhere in the world that has web access, plus the ability to submit standing bids.
PBS offers flexibility that the crew members never had with traditional bid lines. In PBS crew members can mix the types of flying to suit their individual desires, locals with two and three day trips, or things that are different like split duty trips with four day trips, things that would never be done in bid lines. Special off days or large blocks of off days would be constructed in your line when you want them. The key is individual schedules: avoid that particular city, layover in this city or fly a particular pairing. Tailored - PBS tailors crew’s schedules based on the individual, their seniority and the parings available in their bid package.
Note that “Main” is highlighted in yellow (indicating where you are) in the left hand list of hyperlinks (functions). At this stage you can click on any of the links to go directly to that function.
The main page displays the following information:
· Crew Member’s Name
· Crew Member’s Employee ID
· Last login date and time; this login date and time
· Base
· Fleet
· Seniority in the Company
· Seniority in the Crew Base
· Crew Qualifications (positions)
· Attribute
· Other Info
· Current Bid Package Information:
o Name of the specific bid package,
o Description of the bidders,
o Package bidding times,
o Total number of line holders.
Message Board:
The Message Board is a place where the Administrator/Crew Planner of PBS to post messages for that specific Bid Package. It provides a way so that the Administrator can broadcast information.
Clicking on the Online Docs link takes the user to the online Crew Member Guide to PBS. This guide describes all of the preferences and provides bidding suggestions as well as an overview of PBS. Close this page to return to the “Main” page.
Clicking on the View Sen List link you will see all the bidders in your base/category. The page displays employee number, name, seniority and seniority In Bid Package. If a line is shaded and there is an NA in the last column, then that crew member is “not available”.
Clicking on the Preassigned link displays all
pre-assignments on a calendar and at the bottom of the page shows the total
credit and block of the pre-assignments.
This includes carry in, vacation, training, military leave, company
business, etc. Place the cursor over the
pre-assignment and a window shows the dates, credit and block of the
pre-assignment.
By double clicking on the pre-assignment, the system displays a pop-up
window, which shows pairing ID number, start date, end date, credit, block, and
pay; and report and release times. There
are also two buttons; “Delete Bid” and “Back”.
By clicking on the “Back" button, you will return to the calendar.
The User Property (USRP) pre-assignment is a means to comply with FAA or contractual block time limitations for a calendar month or year. It occurs in two situations:
For instance, in November bid month, PBS will limit the maximum block time that can be awarded to a crew member due to the remaining annual allowance for November bid month.
As an example, February bid month starts on January 31st. The USRP value in this case indicates the block time already being flown from January 1st to January 30th, which is the previous bid month. Therefore, January 31st will be left with only some block hours.
In another example, March bid month usually is from March 2nd. This value indicates the block already being flown on March 1st (of prior bid month).
When pre-assignments are loaded into PBS, crew members may see the USRP value showing on the Prioritized Layers page that indicates
1. The available block time for a specific calendar month in the calendar year (for November and December bid months)
2. The block time already being flown in the calendar month (for February and March bid months).
By clicking on the Off Days link, the system displays a calendar of the bid month. The calendar extends 6 days into the previous month and 6 days into the next month so that you can see the scheduled activities that do not occur in the current bid month. These scheduled activities may impact the way you bid and/or your legalities. This calendar is for bidding the days off you want. You can do this by clicking on the individual day, or by clicking on a day-of-week at the top of the calendar if you want all of those days off (for example all Saturdays).
When you first open the Off-Days screen, the calendar will show your pre-assignments and directly below the calendar is a heading “Additional General Bids”. This is where all of your General Bids will be listed.
Note: Clicking Saturday and/or Sunday at the top of the calendar week, requests the system to award you ALL Saturdays and/or Sundays off. (It is an all or nothing bid.). By clicking INDIVIDUAL Saturdays and/or Sundays off, the system will attempt to reward you any, and as many, requested off- days it can. (This is true for any days of the week requested off.)
The letters OFF1 (single day off at layer 1) or OFFW1 (all day-of-week off at layer 1) will show on the day or series of days off that you selected. To undo a requested off day, click on the days off letters and then click on delete bid. That specific bid will be deleted; this window also provides the bidder the ability to set layers for this specific off day and to save those layers.
The ‘Clear All Off Days’ button on the bottom left portion of the screen gives you the ability to clear all of the selected Off Days in one step.
The ‘View Layer’ drop down box gives you the ability to view the requested days off by Layer. There is more on the Layer concept in the Prioritize Layers section of this document.
When the cursor is placed over a date (the actual number) it will change from an arrow to a hand and the date will be highlighted in yellow, this indicates the date is active to bid. You can bid off-days 4 days into the following month, (thus the Arrow to Hand activation). This is to avoid carry-outs operating on your selected off-days in the month. Note: You must bid these same desired off-days in the following bid month, if you so desire.
Strategy: Bidding strategy for days off is almost always based on a combination of your seniority and your objectives. You should request all the days off that you would like to have. Then, in the Prioritize Layers, you can tell the system which preferences are most important to you. You do this by making all of your off day choices a layer 1 selection. In layer two release (uncheck) the off day selections that are less important to you. In each subsequent layer, release the off days that are least important to you. Keep the very most important off days checked in all layers. The result is that you have gradually given the system more opportunities to build you a line while retaining your most important off days. As you reduce the number of off-day requests, by unchecking and releasing, you are INCREASING the number of pairings available to you, and adding them to your pairing pools.
Note: By clicking on Saturday Off you tell the system that you want all Saturdays off. If the system cannot satisfy your request, it will try your next layer, and then the next. Assuming that you have clicked Saturdays off in all layers, the system will finally have to fill if your line is still incomplete. At that point your Saturday bid is no longer considered.
If you want the maximum weekend days off that are available at your seniority and you do not care which ones they are then bid “Max Weekend Days Off”, see this preference in Line Properties.
To review and / or select specific pairings, click on the Pairings link on the left side menu. The system shows multiple displays on the right side screen:
1. A calendar on the top portion of the screen;
2. A pairing search engine (a table in the middle of the screen for entering search criteria);
3. Search results (Pairings), which will appear after you have clicked “search” at the bottom of the table.
The calendar displays the off days and pre-assignments (inherited from previous steps) as well as the specific pairings that are bid (dated pairings appear in the calendar and non-dated pairings appear below the calendar). Note: Bids for pairing and line properties do not appear below the pairing calendar.
There is also a “View Layer” function for reviewing specific pairing bids by layer after using the prioritize layers function. At the bottom of the calendar there are two buttons, “Clear All Specific Pairing ID Bids” and “Clear Search Criteria”. Click on “Clear All Specific Pairing ID Bids” to remove all specific pairing bids. Likewise, by clicking on “Clear Search Criteria” all of the entered search criteria will be removed.
The pairing search engine is a tool for finding pairings. As a bidder it is useful to know how many locals there are or split duty trips are there. This search engine allows you to define specific search criteria, search all the pairings in your bid package (base, equipment and position) and then display them. Notice that after entering your criteria there are two buttons on the bottom of the table, “Search” and “Make Bids”. Click “Search”, if no pairings are found a “No Pairings” message shows in the lower left of the screen, otherwise the defined pairings are displayed below the table. There is a notice of how many pairings were found and how often they operate. Click “Make Bids” if you want to make these search criteria your preferences.
The search results display the located pairings in the print format, which includes; flight number, departure – arrival cities and times, etc. Also, included is a calendar showing the days the pairing operates. On the left side of the pairing display is a window, labeled “on date” and in the window is “Bid Pair ID” with dates below (in year, month, day format). To bid a specific pairing, click on the date desired and then click on “choose” (the pairing ID is just below choose) above the window. You will see that the selected pairing is displayed on the desired day on the calendar.
Note: at the bottom of the search criteria table the choice of Pairing Type divides the searchable pairings into two groups ‘Normal only’ (meaning pairings that are not split duty trips) and ‘Split Duty’ only. By selecting one or the other you define which parings will be searched. Normal only is displayed by default, click on the drop down arrow to select Split Duties only. If you click on the blank above the choices the system will search all pairings.
The following criteria can be used to search the pairings that are in your bid package:
Or you may enter the date (following YYYYMMDD format) in the input field or enter Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat, or Sun and click search. The search displays all the pairings that start on that date or week day consistent with your other criteria.
If you want to bid one of the pairings that starts on a specific date, click on the date in the window on the left hand side and click choose. That pairing ID will appear on the calendar on the date selected. If you want to bid one of the pairings that operates on the week day selected, click on Bid Mon (assuming Monday was selected) in the left hand side window and then click choose. In the area under the calendar, “Pairing ID on weekday (layer1, pair id: actual pairing id number, Mon)” will be displayed.
Click on the hyperlink Prioritize Layers and you will note that the pairing on date and pairing on weekday are listed under the pairings section followed by the specific pairing ID number and date or weekday. Also, one pairing is counted on the chart when pairing on date is bid and (in our case we bid a pairing that operated on four Mondays) four pairings are counted from the bid pairing on weekday.
Note: In this search criterion Make Bids does not operate.
The following three criteria work together to locate pairings that meet the combined requirements of layover city, date and length of layover. Enter your desired combinations and click search. The system will locate the pairings that meet your criteria. If you want to fly any of these pairings you must bid them specifically (bid each pairing ID on the desired day). When bidding the three together the “Make Bids” function does not carry these criteria into the prioritized layers.
Note: Duty Day – This definition of day extends
into the succeeding day up to 2:00.
Hence the release can be as late as 2:00 the next day and still count as
one day. Ex: a two duty period trip flies into the third
day and releases at 00:15, using Duty Day this would count as a two day trip. If one were using Calendar Day this would be
counted as a three day trip because it crossed midnight into the third day.
Calendar Day – Counts days from 00:00 to 23:59 as a single calendar day. Any trip which releases after midnight would be counted as an additional day.
After the search criteria have been entered, click on the “Search” button to start searching. The search result is displayed on the bottom portion of the screen. If the system cannot find any pairings that match your criteria, it will show “no pairings found” on the bottom left corner of the inquiry table. If you want to make your search criteria into a bid, click on the Make Bids button (remember those cases in which Make Bids will not work) and all of the selected pairings will become your bids (example: You searched for four day pairings with a TAFB credit ratio of 3.4. There are 3 different four-day trips with a TAFB credit ratio of 3.5 or less. You can bid them all by selecting Make Bids. Note: the Make Bids function converts your search criteria into bidding preferences, and you will see them in prioritized layers. This bid will not show on the calendar because it is a general preference.
Search Result: The pairings that were found are displayed on the bottom portion of the screen.
You may decide to select (bid) some of the specific pairings shown. Click on the preferred pairing’s date you want to bid in the left side list under ‘on date’. Then click on choose above the window. The pairing number is just below choose. The selected pairing will show up on the calendar on the specified date.
To select multiple pairings, depress the ‘shift’ key and click on the dates desired, then click choose and the pairing will be displayed on the calendar on the dates selected. Use the shift key when you want pairings that are in a row, like five split duty trips in a row. Use the ‘control’ key if you want to select multiple occurrences, like every Monday. Again, click on choose.
To bid a specific pairing ID (one pairing on all days it operates), first search for the pairings of interest, then click “Bid pair ID” in the window on the left and then click choose. The system will display your pairing ID bids below the calendar and place it in prioritize layers.
Note: When using the search engine, if you select locals and either a layover city or any layover time it will show no pairings found. If you select locals and two-day trips with layover criteria only two-day trips will be displayed. If you click on ‘Make Bids’ using locals and two-day trips with layover criteria and then move to Prioritize layers you will see that the locals are included in the Matched Pairing Chart. This logic is unique to Locals.
The Make Bids function carries the search criteria over to the prioritized layers as preferences. These preferences combine with all others on each layer checked. For example, you search for two-day pairings that layover in SFO and find 10 and then Make Bids. Next you search for four-day pairings with Min Layover of 12:00 and find another 10 and then Make Bids. You then move to Prioritize Layers. You will see that two and four days pairings are chosen along with Layover in SFO, and Min Layover time of 12:00. By checking these choices in Layer 1 note the Matched Pairing Chart showing only 6 pairings are available. Because the layover in SFO and the Min Layover time of 12:00 applied to both the 2 and 4 day trips.
Specific pairings bid on specific date/s survive all conflicts except pre-assignments. When you bid a pairing on a date it will overrule an off day bid on the same date; it will survive a conflict with a report between bid that is more constraining, a conflicting pairing length bid, etc. When specific pairing ID’s are bid without dates, they will survive all conflicts except off days and pre-assignments.
When specific pairings are bid along with general preferences (any local or any 2 day trip) on the same layer, they are seen by the system as of equal importance. For example, if such a bid were made on layer 1, then all bids would be classed as P1’s and the line might contain any combination of the specific pairings, locals and two-day trips. We suggest that if you really want the specific pairings only, then bid them on layer 1 and bid the more general bids on layer 2 and so on.
When bidding pairing ID’s on a date and pairing ID’s and pairing length and split duty trips all on the same layer, they will all be included into the pairing pool and marked as P1’s. In this case you could also condition the pairing lengths with report time, layovers, etc.
If one were to bid pairing ID’s on a date and then only bid conditioning preferences such as report time or layover then the pairings that satisfy those conditioning preferences plus the pairings on date will be included in the pairing pool.
When you click on the Pairing Properties link on the left side menu, the system displays:
1. A calendar displaying pre-assignments and all the previously selected off-days date specific properties and date specific pairings,
2. Immediately below the calendar is a title ”Additional General Bids” where all general bids will be listed,
3. And below is a list of preferences to bid for pairing properties.
Once again, above the calendar are “View Layer” button and “Clear All Checkmarks” button. The “Clear All Checkmarks” button provides the bidder an easy method to remove the checkmarks from the entire calendar. The checkmarks allow the bidder to bid selected pairing properties (pairing length, report time, release time and layover city) on specific days.
Just below the calendar is a line saying “Additional General Bids”. Each time you bid a pairing property preference it will be listed here. The chosen General Bid will be followed by a message, “Layer None”. This is to inform the bidder that although they have chosen Pairings, Pairing Properties or Line Properties, no Layer has been selected. When one of these choices has been selected by checking a Layer, that Layer number, (e.g. Layer 1, 3, 5), alerts the bidder what Layer that preference has been selected in. Uncheck the preference in Layer 1 and 5, the message would read Layer 3.
For each of the preferred pairing properties, first click on the bidding button next to the preference, then you may click on a Bid button to save the bid or Clear Bid button to delete all related Bids.
Note: Bidding Pairings and Pairing Properties tells the system which pairings to use to build your line. When your bids go from specific to more general there will be more pairings on each successive layer for the system to choose from.
Listed below are all the Pairing Properties that you can bid as preferences. Notice that the search criteria in the Pairing section are in fact pairing property preferences.
For each of the pairing properties, you may click on a Bid button to save it or Clear Bid button to delete all related Bids.
· Minimum Average Credit per duty period – When you click on this preference, the system will show a field that allows you to select pairings of a specified average credit per duty period. The values are preset from 3:45 to 7:30 in 00:15 increments.
·
Pairing Length – This preference
allows you to specify the length of pairings (in duty days) you want to fly.
When this preference is clicked, a drop down
window appears, click on the 1, 2, 3, or 4 to determine desired trip length.
You may specify one day trips, also known as a local, or 2 day trips or a 3 day
trips or 4 day trips. If you want to bid
2 and 3 day trips, bid twice, first the 2’s and then the 3’s. This excludes
split duty trips.
Note: Duty Day – This definition of day extends
into the succeeding day up to 2:00.
Hence the release can be as late as 0200 the next day and still count as
one day. Ex: a two duty period trip flies into the third
day and releases at 0015, using Duty Day this would count as a two day
trip. If one were using Calendar Day this
would be counted as a three day trip because it crossed midnight into the third
day. Calendar Day – Counts days from 0000 to 2359 as a single calendar
day. Any trip which releases after
midnight would be counted as an additional day.
· Pairing Length on Date – When this preference is clicked, a drop down window appears, click on the 1, 2, 3, or 4 to determine desired trip length. Then click on the small boxes in the calendar for the dates you want these trips, and then click “Bid on Checked Dates”. Note: that the preferred pairing lengths appear on the selected dates in the calendar.
· Deadhead Preference – This preference instructs the system that you want to either prefer or avoid deadheads. The default is no preference.
· Include Split Duties – This preference allows you to instruct the system that you prefer split duty trips. The system will honor this request seniority permitting. If you check that you want split duty trips the system will attempt to build you a line based on the priorities expressed in the Prioritize Layers table. (The system default is to avoid split duty trips).
· Report Between – This preference allows you to specify the reporting time of your trips. Select the time window (I want to report between Time A and Time B) from the drop down lists of hours and minutes. When bidding, it is recommended to start Layer 1 with a narrow Report time window and expand the window in subsequent Layers.
· Report Between On Date – Similar to the Pairing Length on Date preference, you check the dates you want to report according to the report time window specified. Check your desired date/s, enter your desired times and then click on “Bid On Checked Dates”.
· Release Between – This Preference allows you to specify the desirable release time window. Use the same way as Report.
· Release Between On Date. Similar to the Report between on Date Preference, you can check the dates you want to release according to the release time window specified.
· Layover at City – This preference allows the crew member to Bid for or Avoid pairings that have a layover in a specific city. The cities are in a drop down window. Note that the pairing satisfies this preference if it lays over once in the requested city. Actual cities are shown in the drop down window based on the current month’s pairings.
· Layover at City on Date Preference – This preference allows you to request pairings that contain layovers in a specific city on a specific date. Check the calendar as with other dated preferences. The calendar is marked with “LAY ‘city code” on the dates checked. Actual cities are displayed.
· Avoid International Preference – This preference instructs the system not to include international trips to a pairing pool. Except Split Duty and Stand-Up trips, regular trips and international trips are being added to pairing pools by default when one bids pairing properties. The bidder should bid Avoid International in each layer in order to avoid them.
· Min Connection (Turn) Time Preference – This preference allows you to request pairings that have connection times no less than the time specified. Use the drop down window to bid hours and minutes.
· Max Connection (Turn) Time Preference – This preference allows you to request pairings that have connection (sit) times no greater than the time specified. Use the drop down window to bid hours and minutes.
· Bid Co-Domicile – This preference allows you to request a specific domicile when you are in a base that has co-terminals. Click the drop down and clicked on the desired city code, then click bid. When one station exists in a domicile there will not be a bid button and instead a message will appear saying “Only one domicile exists in bid package.
· Min Layover Time Preference – This preference allows you to request layovers equal to or greater than the layover time specified. Use the drop down window to bid hours and minutes.
· Max Layover Time Preference – This preference allows you to request layovers equal to or less than the layover time specified. Use the drop down window to bid hours and minutes.
· Max TAFB - credit Ratio Preference – This preference allows you to request pairings that have a TAFB credit ratio that is equal to or less than the number specified. The TAFB credit ratio is the ‘time away from base’ divided by the ‘credit hours’ of a pairing. Strong locals which have a TAFB of 12:00 and credit of 6:00 have a TABF credit ratio of 2. A four day pairing which has TAFB of 70:00 and credit of 20:00 has a TAFB credit ratio of 3.5. The lower the ratio the more credit for less time away from base. Enter your desired ratio in the window and click bid.
· Sub-Equipment Preference – This preference allows you to request the specific sub-equipment you want to fly or to remove the specific sub-equipment from your existing pairing pool. Click on the drop down window and select your desired equipment and click “Bid Prefer” or “Bid Remove”. If you do not bid this preference, it means you have no preference on the sub-equipment and all sub-equipments are available to you. Note: if you are qualified on one sub-equipment type there will be one choice. When one sub-equipment exists there will not be a bid button and instead a message will appear saying “Only one (qualified) sub equip exists in bid package”.
·
Max
Landings Per Duty Period – This preference allows
you to request a specified number of landings or less within
each duty period. Click on the drop up
window and select the desired number of landings and click bid.
·
Avoid Landing At City – This preference avoids any landings at a specific
city. Enter the city code in the window
and click Bid Avoid. Use the city codes
that are displayed in the pairing print under the pairing search. Remember, this preference will include all
pairings into your pool that do not land at the specified city unless you have
also provided other constraints on the specific layer.
· Position Preference – This preference allows you to request the specific position you want to fly or to remove the specific position from your existing pairing pool. Click on the drop down window and select your desired position and click “Bid Prefer” or “Bid Remove”. If you do not bid this preference, it means you have no preference on the position and all positions are available to you.
· Prefer Position for Multi-Pos. Pairing-ID Bids – This preference allows flight attendants to choose one of the F/A positions (“FA” or “FF”) in a trip that consists of two F/A seats when a crew member bids for pairing ID’s (and/or on-date, on-weekday. In this case, the single-seat trips from pairing ID (and/or on-date, on-weekday) bids would not be affected. Therefore, the part of the pairing pool created by the pairing ID (and/or on-date, on-weekday) bids may consist of a combination of single-seat trips and multi-seat trips but with preferred seat only. This bidding preference does not work with “Fly With” and “Buddy With” bidding preferences, i.e., do not intend to choose a specific F/A position when bidding fly-with or buddy-with.
When you click on the Line Properties link you will see the calendar with all inherited requested days off, any specific pairings that you requested, any date specific Pairing Properties you may have requested, your pre-assignments, your Additional General Bids, and a list of line preferences.
While the above preferences selected the
pairings to use when the system builds your line, the Line Properties either
constrain the line or determine if the line is feasible.
Each preference has a bidding button. These bidding preferences allow you to specify your desired line characteristics.
Listed below are the Line Property Preferences:
· Min. Number of Days Off – This preference states that you want a minimum of “x” (some number) of days off in the bid month. This constraint tells the system that if it cannot build a legal line at the existing layer with the bid number of days off or more, then move to the next layer and try again. Click on the preference and enter a number (between 10 and 20) in the window and click bid.
· Fly With / Avoid – This preference provides the ability to bid flying with one other crew member. And to avoid one other crew member. This preference is available to FO’s and FA’s only, because CA’s will be run first, then FO’s and thirdly FA’s. Hence FO’s can choose to fly with or avoid a CA, while FA’s can choose to fly with a CA or a FO and avoid either a CA or a FO. Note: Since CA’s cannot bid this preference, it will not appear on their bidding pages.
To Fly With: Click on Fly With / Avoid and enter the six digit employee number and then click “Bid Fly With”. The system will place this preference on layer 1 in prioritize layers and show the remaining layers grayed out. This is the only bid that will automatically place a check in Layer 1. Bid your other preferences in layers two through seven as usual. Note: in the matched pairings chart, layer 1 will show zero pairings available; this is because the system will need to find the pairings that are not yet awarded to your fly with choice. Also, bid one day off between work blocks in all layers if your fly with has bid one day off between work blocks. Note: Only bid “Fly With” and “Min Off Days Between Work Block” on layer 1; do not bid any other preferences in layer 1.
The “Min Off Days Between Work Block” bid is required; otherwise the default of “2 off days” will be used in layer 1 and it cannot be increased in subsequent layers.
To Avoid: Click on Fly With / Avoid and enter the six digit employee number and then click “Bid Avoid”. It is important to understand that in a fly with bid, the system places the awarded line of your “Fly With” in your layer one, if you are senior enough to hold these pairings you will fly completely together. If someone senior to you is awarded one of these pairings then the system will use your other layers to complete your line. In the avoid bid the pairings of your “Avoid” are identified and excluded from the pairings used to build your line. Each crew member is limited to make ONE prefer fly-with and ONE avoid fly-with bid.
A more senior flight attendant cannot avoid flying with a more junior flight attendant who made this bid.
This bid will instruct the awarding process to include all trips awarded to the preferred senior crew member that are still available to this more junior crew member’s pairing pool for this layer.
Without knowing the awarded line of the flight attendant you buddy bid with, it is recommended that one should avoid bidding line constraints as well as pairings or off days on specific dates.
The “Clear-Award/Partial Line” and “Try to Finish at This Layer” bids work the standard way.
· Buddy With/Avoid – This preference provides a means to a more junior flight attendant that would like to possibly buddy with or avoid another more senior flight attendant on the same CR7 or CR9 trip(s).
Buddy With: One can make this “Buddy With” bid on every layer with a different more senior flight attendant’s employee ID. This bid in each layer brings the available pairings awarded to the more senior flight attendant’s line into the pairing pool for this layer. Similar to the Fly-With preference, only “One-Day off between Work Blocks” preference can co-exist with the “Buddy With” preference.
This bid will instruct the awarding process to include all trips awarded to the preferred senior crew member that are still available to this more junior crew member’s pairing pool for this layer.
Buddy Avoid: One can only bid Buddy Avoid once and this bid must be checked in every layer in order to completely avoid buddy with the indicated flight attendant.
A more senior flight attendant cannot stop more junior flight attendants making Buddy With or Avoid bids associated with her/him.
The “Clear-Award/Partial Line” and “Try to Finish at This Layer” bids work the standard way.
Warning Message: After saving your bids, a warning message will be displayed when (1) multiple Buddy With or Avoid bids are checked on the same layer; or (2) a Buddy With or Avoid bid co-exists with the Avoid Fly With bid on the same layer. The warning message indicates that these bids will not be effectively interpreted by the awarding process.
·
Target Line Credit Range. This preference states that you want a
desired range of values for your line. The number entered should be a whole
number. For example: Enter 90 98, not 90:00 to 98:00. Enter your desired lower
value and higher value, and then click “Bid”.
Note: this preference sets
the line feasibility, if the system cannot satisfy this feasibility
requirement, it moves to the next layer.
The graph below illustrates how PBS handles “Target Line Credit Range” bids that are out of range for a regular CRJ crew member (where the actual line credit range is between 80:00 and 120:00):
Established credit value for CRJ: 75:00 |<--------------->| 120:00
(1) Bidder 1 bids all layers 70:00 |<---------------->| 95:00
PBS Solves at: (L1,L2, …LN) 75:00 |<---------->| 95:00 range used
Established credit value for CRJ: 75:00 |<--------------->| 120:00
(2) Bidder 2 bids all layers 90:00 |<------------------------->| 140:00
PBS Solves at: (L1,L2, …LN) 90:00 |<------>| 120:00 range used
Established credit value for CRJ: 75:00 |<--------------->| 120:00
(3) Bidder 3 bids all layers 130:00 |<----------------->| 180:00
PBS Solves at (LN) 75:00 |<--------------->| 120:00 range used in LN
In the first two examples above (Bidders1 & 2) the system will use the one legal line value and set the other to either the line minimum or line maximum. The system will solve at the layer that can be satisfied by the pairings that have been bid. Hence the award could be all P1’s and solve in Layer 1 or layer 2, and so on.
In example 3, the system will solve in layer LN because the system cannot satisfy the bid, it will use the pairings that were bid in each layer when it solves in LN. Hence the award could have all P1’s or a combination of P1’s & P2’s or P1’s & P2’s & P3’s, etc. … depending on the bid and seniority.
Additionally, there are three kinds of credit range boundaries set in
the system:
· Instructors – If an instructor does not ask for a credit range that is higher than the regular line holder’s credit range, the system settings will apply. An instructor must specify the preferred credit range on all layers in order to build a line that is above the regular upper bound. The system will always build a line within the range that has been bid, the only exception occurs if it is impossible to build the line to the requested range and then a line could be lower.
·
Min Off Days Between Work Blocks –
This preference sets the minimum number of days off between work blocks. A work block can be a single pairing or pairings
that work back to back, but once there is a day off it will be the minimum
number of days set.
The
default is “two days”. Such a setting
will ensure that there is never a pattern of one local and one day off, but
will allow a pattern of one local and two days off followed by a single local
and then two days off. Click on the
preference, click on the drop down list, click on the desired number (1 to 9)
and click bid.
Note
that this preference is a line constraint that instructs the system to only use
two days off by default. You need to bid
one or three if you want your line to be otherwise. Also, if you want to fly a high value line,
you will need to bid “1”.
When
using this preference, bid the more constraining bid in layer 1 and again relax
in subsequent layers. For example, bid
“Min Off Days between Work Blocks” 3 on layer 1 and then 2 on layer 2, and then
maybe 1 on layer 4.
If one
were to bid layer 1 as 1 off and layer 2 as 2 off; the system honors the line
legalities of the first layer. So in
this case at layer one a partial line is built and there is a single day off
between work blocks, the system in layer two will hold the P1 pairings and as a
result ignore “Min Off Days between Work Blocks” of two in layer two.
Note: Trip Mix in a Work Block and Commutable
Work Block are special case preferences.
In these two cases Work Block has a special definition. Work Block must be two pairings back to back
(no days off in between) and their sum must be four days or more. These work blocks will be preceded by and
followed by off day/s.
Trip Mix in a Work Block will be counted in the
matched pairing chart. For example, when
3x1 is bid all one day trips and all three day trips are included in the count
displayed in the chart. Commutable Work
Block bids will show all pairings in the matched pairing chart.
· Trip Mix In A Work Block – This preference allows you to create work blocks that contain trips of the specified lengths. The system will use the trip lengths only in the order that you specified in the selection box. Click on the preference and select your trip mix in the drop down window and click bid. There is a limit of two choices per layer.
· Commutable Work Block – This preference allows you to request that your work block begins after a specified time and ends prior to a specified time. Click on the preference and select hours and minutes for report and hours and minutes for release, then click bid. Awarded Commutable Work Block will always contain two pairings.
Note: There is a limit of one Commutable Work Block bid per layer.
Do not bid pairing length (including split duty trips) or pairing ID on date on the same layer with trip mix in a work block or with commutable work block. If you do, the work block bids will be ignored.
You can bid pairing ID and commutable work block on the same layer, which will create work blocks that utilize the pairings specified (the pairings need to fulfill the report and release requirements stated in the commutable bid).
Bidding trip mix and commutable work block on the same layer produces work blocks with only the trip mix specified.
Bidding commutable work blocks with a specified layover will produce work blocks composed of only pairings with that layover.
Bid four-day trips with report and release times on one layer then commutable
work block on a following layer.
·
Min Rest At Domicile – This preference allows crew members to
request for a base rest time higher than the default 9 hours of rest. The
limitation for this preference is as follows:
o One can bid this preference at any layer. If this bid does not appear in a layer, the default 9 hours of rest is applied.
o The bid for minimum rest at domicile at each layer must follow a descending order, i.e., one cannot bid 10 hours of rest at layer 1 and 10 hours and 30 minutes of rest at layer 2. Not following a descending order may cause unpredictable results, because the awarding process may get confused during the shuffling process.
o If one has bid this preference with higher rest times at higher layers, he/she is recommended not to bid the minimum rest at domicile at the last layer, meaning the default 9 hours of rest shall apply, to increase the number of acceptable pairings.
o The preference “Clear Award/Partial Line” will void one’s minimum rest at domicile bid in prior layers.
o As a preference in the Line Property group, the pairing pool bar charts are not affected by this bid.
· Cadence Preference. This preference states that you want your work blocks to start on the same weekday. For example: any four day pairings as long as they all start on Tuesdays. This is a line constraint and if it is not satisfied the system will move to the next layer. If you bid two specific pairings that start on different days of the week, this preference forces the system to move to the next layer if it cannot fill around them to make the starting days the same. This preference does not consider carry-in pairings. It looks at the current month pairings only.
· Work Block Size. This preference provides the ability to bid the desired size of work blocks. Click on the preference and click on the drop down list next to “low” and click on the smallest size of work blocks desired (1 – 6 days), click on the drop down list next to “high” and click on the largest size work block desired (1 –6 days) and click bid. As an example, your preference maybe a low of “3” and a high of “5”; the system would build no work blocks smaller than 3 days and none larger than 5 days. Remember, don’t bid one of the work block bids (Trip Mix or Commutable Work Block) and also bid size of 1-3. This causes a conflict because they are by definition a combination of 4-day work blocks. Doing so will push the bidder to the next layer, maybe LN.
· For FO’s Only there is a: Avoid Check Airman Trips preference. Click on this preference and then click bid. It is important to realize that all of the pairings that have been bid by check airmen will be unavailable to you if you use this preference. In bases that have several check airmen this could severally limit your pairing choices. Also note that this preference only appears in the FO’s Line Properties, CA’s and FA’s will not see this preference.
· For CA’s and FO’s Only there is a: Allow Split-duty with 4-day Pairing preference. Click on this preference and then click bid. This bid option allow pilot to waive the default and allow PBS to build split-duty and 4-day in a work block. By default it is illegal to award split-duty and a 4 day trip in a work block. Also note that this preference only appears in the CA’s and FO’s Line Properties, FA’s will not see this preference.
· Max Total Days Off. As part of the Line Property bids, the “Max total days off” preference requests the system to award a line with as many days off as possible. The feasibility of the total days off is driven by the pairing pools as well as the applicable credit range that is defined either by crew member or by system default, along with other line properties. When this bid is checked in any layer, the awarding process chooses pairings from the current pairing pool that can maximize total days off. That could mean picking trips with higher credit to meet the requested credit range and also achieve the highest number of off days.
· Max Block of Off Days. This preference helps crew members get consecutive days off, if the pairings in each pool provides the opportunity for more off days in a roll. Crew members must check this preference in each layer in order for the system to consider this bid in the checked layer.
· Max Weekend Days Off – This preference instructs the system to arrange your selected pairings in a manner (build you a line) that maximizes the number of weekend days you have off. In this preference the system scores three individual Saturdays off higher than a weekend off (one Saturday and one Sunday), 3 vs. 2.
Note: In
some cases the pairings that have been specified may only be available on
weekends, if this is the case and the system can build a legal line it will,
even though there are no weekend days off.
· Max Credit – This preference requests the system to award a line with the highest credit value at this layer. The awarded line could be constrained by other line properties specified in the same layer, especially the Target Line Credit Range. When this bid is checked in any layer, the awarding process chooses pairings from the current pairing pool that can maximize the line credit value. If one would like to get high credit for his/her line, this preference must be checked in each layer on the Prioritize Layer screen.
· Allow Pairing-Pairing On The Same Day – This preference has changed the default provision for two pairings back-to-back from allowing two pairings back-to-back on the same calendar day to NOT allowing two pairings back-to-back on the same calendar day. However, two split duty trips can still be back-to-backed with each other on the same calendar day as before. Therefore when crew members bid for pairings back-to-back on the same calendar day (release and report on the same calendar day), all of the following scenarios will not happen, even though the base rest between these two trips satisfy the rest constraints:
o A split duty trip is followed by a non-split-duty trip on the same calendar day;
o A non-split-duty trip is followed by a split duty trip on the same calendar day;
o Two non-split-duty trips are back-to-backed on the same calendar day.
To allow the above scenarios to happen, one must bid the "Allow Pairing-Pairing On The Same Day." preference. On the Priority Layers page, once this preference is checked at any layer, the awarding process will carry this bid through the remaining layers and may award pairings back-to-backed on the same calendar day.
· Waive Default Minimum Days Off This preference instructs the system to allow a crewmember to waive the default minimum days off in her/his line. Once this preference is checked on the first layer or the layer that co-exists with the “Clear Award/Partial Line” on the same layer, the only constraint for constructing a line is FAR’s 1-in-7. This bid is useful when one wants to get a high credit line.
· Waive Default Minimum Credit This preference instructs the system to allow crew members to waive the default minimum credit for their lines. As the result of this bid, the minimum credits for all crew members are as follows:
o All Pilots: Reduced to 58:36.
o Full Time Flight Attendants: Reduced from 80:00 to 50:00
o Part-Timers: Reduced from 40:00 to 25:00 (Part-Timer FA’s are capped at 60:00)
Crew members shall bid this preference on the first layer, or on the layer that also has “Clear Award/Partial Line” checked. The “Clear Award/Partial Line” preference does not retain or remember the “Waive Default Minimum Credit” bid prior to its layer.
In order to reinforce to
be awarded with a lower line value, one may also bid a lower credit range. To
satisfy the need for coverage, this bid may not be honored.
·
Waive Default Max Work Block This
option allows the software to award a line with a raw 30 + buffer hour break in
the rolling 168 hours per FAR 117 and it will also waive the maximum work block
of 6 days automatically. One shall always make this bid in the first layer and
it would be applied to all layers automatically. The Clear Award/Partial Line
preference would not clear this bid.
·
Waive Max Block Time in 7 The default block time limitation is 28 hours
of block time in 7 days. This option would waive the default 28-in-7 to support
the current rolling FAR-117 rules. One shall always make this bid in the first
layer and it would be applied to all layers automatically. The Clear
Award/Partial Line preference would not clear this bid.
· Avoid Reserve The purpose of having this bid preference is to allow a crew member, whose seniority is on the borderline between as a line holder and a reserve, to insist on getting a partial line if she/he is eligible to be a line holder. As one of the most junior line holders, there may not have enough trips available to build a complete line for you. The “Avoid Reserve” bid ensures that you would get a complete line or a partial line if you are eligible to be a line holder.
Two critical bidding strategies are described below:
1. Instruct the system to consider your reserve bids before you get a partial line – Bid reserve lines prior to bidding the “Avoid Reserve”. In this case, the system processes all of your line holder bids as well as reserve bids till it reaches the layer that contains the “Avoid Reserve” bid.
2. Set your reserve line preferences if you turn out to be a reserve crew – Bid “Avoid Reserve” preference prior to your reserve bids, i.e., the system will be able to decide if you can stay as a line holder or you will have to be on reserve. In the case of being a line holder, the subsequent reserve bids will be completely ignored; on the other hand, the system processes your subsequent reserve bids as a result of you being on reserve.
The following example illustrates how the system processes a typical “Avoid Reserve” bid:
The Bids:
o Layer 1: line holder bids
o Layer 2: reserve bids
o Layer 3: line holder bids
o Layer 4: reserve bids
o Layer 5: line holder bids with “Avoid Reserve” bid
o Layer 6: reserve bids
o Layer 7: line holder bids
The Process:
The system will try to build a complete line or find a reserve line for you according to the bids at first four layers. When it reaches layer 5, the system will decide if this crew member will be a line holder or a reserve. If he/she is a line holder, layer 5 and possibly layer 7 will be processed and layer 6 will be ignored. If he/she becomes a reserve, layer 6 will be processed.
· For FA’s Only, Allow Pairing-Training Piggy Backing – This preference enables the system to award a pairing from the pairing pool that releases the crew member on the same day when a training trip starts, provided that the total duty time by adding the last pairing duty period’s duty time and the first training duty’s duty time does not exceed 14 hours for flight attendants, and the sit time between the pairing duty and the training duty is at least 2 hours. That means a pairing duty and a training duty can be back-to-backed on the same day, as long as the sit time in between is at least 2 hours and the total duty time for this combined duty is 14 hours or less. All other work rules apply to this pairing-training piggyback work block.
When bidding for this preference, crew members must check on individual layers
in order to activate this preference for the checked pairing pools.
· Try To Finish At This Layer – This preference performs a shuffling process, before it proceeds to processing bids in the next layer. It would take place only when the system cannot build a complete line up to this layer. Without this preference in one’s bids, the shuffling process would happen only when a complete line could not be awarded at one’s last layer. With this preference checked in any layer, the shuffling process is forced to take place by considering all preferences from layer 1 up to the checked layer. The objective of this preference is to help crew members obtain the most favorable pairings from the higher priority layers.
·
Clear Award/Partial Line – With this
preference, the crew member can instruct the system to create a complete line
that utilizes his or her choices from the layer(s) leading up to the Clear
Award/Partial Line preference. If a complete line cannot be awarded based on
this first layer(s), the system will conduct a final optimization in this first
layer(s) and consider all the available pairings in its pools as a last resort
before restarting from the layer designated by the Clear Award/Partial Line
preference. The resulting line award from the final optimization would still
maximize the crew member’s requests by layers. If the system is forced to
employ the Clear Award/Partial Line preference because a line cannot be
completed from the first layer(s) through the crew member’s choices or through
the final optimization, the system automatically discards all preferences
specified in the first layer(s) and begins a new line awarding process on the
layer designated by the Clear Award/Partial Line preference. This preference
provides for an “all or nothing” form of bidding practice. There is no limit
for the number of layers being set with this preference. The Clear
Award/Partial Line preference will not honor the reserve bid on the same layer,
i.e., the reserve bid on this layer will be ignored.
There are four Line Properties that need clarification:
1. Min Off Days Between Work Blocks
2. Work Block Size
and
3. Target Line Credit Range
4. Min. Number of Days Off
Properties 1 & 2 must be bid in Layer 1, otherwise the system will read the defaults: “2 days off” between work blocks and work block size of “1 to 6 days”. Once values have been bid the bidder can only bid more relaxed values for these two properties on subsequent layers. If the bidder skips bidding the work block size on a layer the system will adopt the default.
A bid of one off for Min Off Days Between Work Blocks on any layer will result in one off on all subsequent layers unless “Clear All” is used.
If they skip Min Off Days Between Work Blocks and the previous bid was three or more off then the system will use the default (two off).
Property 3: The system will use the entire window of credit range (the range set by the company) if there is no bid. Once a range is bid the subsequent layers should bid wider ranges. If not, the system will use the wider range; for ex. L2 the range is 75 to 80 hours and L3 is 85 to 90 hours, the system will use 75 to 90 hours in L3.
Property 4: If there is no bid the system will solve to satisfy the existing bids, ensuring 10 or 11 off days. Once Min. Number of Days Off has been bid the subsequent bids must request same/fewer off days, the system will operate on the smallest of all of the previous bid values.
The PBS offers one and only one of the following reserve bidding features:
By clicking on the Reserve link, the system displays two calendars, a targeted
reserve staffing per day chart and a calendar for you to bid your off days. The
targeted reserve staffing per day chart is set by the company to indicate the
minimal required reserves per day. Use the chart to bid your reserve days
off and measure the chance of getting your day-off bids awarded
accordingly. The second calendar extends back at least 6 days into the previous
month, and 6 days into the next month, so you can see the scheduled activities
that do not occur in the current bid month. These scheduled activities may
impact the way you bid and your legalities. You can bid reserve off by clicking
on the letter (M)ust or (P)refer on each individual day.
· The Must Off Days are the must-be-satisfied off days. If the system can’t satisfy your requested off days, it will abandon this reserve bid move on to the next layer.
· The Prefer Off Days are off-day bids that the system will consider and will not move on to the next layer if you can’t get them. Instead the system will try to maximize the number of preferred off days you’ve requested.
To delete an off day bid, just click on the same letter M or P on the calendar day again. At the Preferred Reserve Type you may select you preference over AM or PM reserve. If you have Must Honor checked, it will indicate to the system that it must satisfy your reserve type or else move on to the next layer. After you finished your selection, click on Create New Bid to create your reserve bid preference. At Prioritize Layers you will put the bid into the layer you want.
Note:
· Must and Prefer Off Days cannot co-exist with each other on the same calendar day in a reserve bid.
· In Prioritize Layers you can only have 1 reserve bid per layer.
To recall and edit your existing bid, click on the radio button of your bid under the calendars. Create New Bid button will be changed to Modify Existing Bid to indicate you are modifying
Click
on the Reserve link and a
list of the pre-built Reserve lines will be displayed. At the bottom of the
page there is an input box where you can type in the line number(s) of the
Reserve Line(s) you want to bid. If you want to bid a number of Reserve Lines,
the numbers should be separated by only a comma and no spaces. OR you
can also use the drop down window to select your desired reserve lines. Select the line and click “Append” and the
line will appear in the bidding window.
Append up twelve lines. Then
click on ‘Bid’.
The Reserve line(s) that you bid will become part of the Prioritize
Layers table. When you use the Prioritize Layers function you can then place
the Reserve bid in the layer you want. You can check preferences on subsequent
layers (after the Reserve Bid Layer) if you think that you might not be awarded
your requested reserve line(s) and you would rather hold any line.
The system will try to award you the first reserve line you bid, if it
is not available, the system will try for the next line and so on. If none are available it will go to your next
layer.
The system will retain the pairings from your previous layers in a pairing
pool and utilize them after your reserve bid in subsequent layers. This happens when you are not satisfied at
the reserve bid layer and you have bid subsequent layers.
If you want to bid many reserve lines you may bid 20 lines per layer,
bid a set of 20 in each layer, up to a maximum of 140 reserve lines.
Do
not make any other bids, including the “Clear Award/Partial Line” bid, on the
same layer with your reserve bid. If you do, then the system will ignore the
reserve bid and process the additional bids on the same layer.
The Prioritize Layers is an extremely important function. This is the function that tells the system which of your preferences is your first choice, second choice and so on.
Click on the Prioritize Layers link and you will see a screen with a “Matched Pairing Chart” on top followed by a box with your pre-assignments (if there are any), a box with tools, a box showing reserve, a box showing the off days you bid, a box with the pairings & pairing properties you bid and a box with the line properties you bid. If you did not bid a category then there will not be a corresponding box.
At the very top of the screen there is a button to “Delete User Bids”. Use this if you want to clear all of your existing bids.
The Matched Pairing Chart shows how many pairings are available to you based on your off days, pairings and pairing and line property bids. The line properties when bid alone will show 100% of the pairings available (except for “Trip Mix in a Work Block” which will add all of the pairings bid i.e., 1x3 includes all the 1 day and 3 day trips). As you check and uncheck preferences in the table below the chart, click on “save layers”, the chart will recalculate and display the new number of pairings available. The chart displays are cumulative (layer 2 shows the pairings available from the preferences of layer 2 plus the pairings from layer 1) unless you have checked a “Clear Award/Partial Line”. The bars in the chart are color coded; green for the pairings selected, yellow if the next layer has not changed, and red if the numbers of pairings have been reduced in the following layer and blue for unbid pairings. Because the default setting is to avoid split duty trips, a base with split duty trips will show less than 100% in the blue bar. As a bidder, if you also bid split duty trips then the bars will show 100% when all other options are bid.
You may choose either the FA or FF position in order to view the number of corresponding trips in each pairing pool. The default crew-type for the bar chart is “ALL”. It works the same way when one reviews pairings on the View Pairing Set page.
Your pre-assignments are shown next and follow by a box of tools. The tools are: check/clear all used to check all preferences in a layer or clear all checks in a layer; invert layer checkboxes if you wanted to bid the exact opposite; and copy from previous layer used to copy all checks from one layer to the next. The tools are for your convenience.
The following tables (boxes) show reserve, the off days, the pairing & pairing property preferences and line property preferences you bid. Initially all preferences are checked in layer one. To direct the system, uncheck all but your first choices, then place a check in layer two for your second choices, check layer three for third choices and so on. Then click “Save layers”, the chart will calculate and display the number of pairings available to you based on your choices (layers 1, layers 2, and so on). It is important to increase the number of pairings available in your subsequent layers.
The “Save layers” button is located at the bottom left of the screen. Remember to save layers each time you change the checks in your layers. (We have implemented a function for Internet Explorer V6 and above that initiates a popup if you go to another function without saving, it asks you if you want to save.)
Strategy: Start by bidding the days you want off and then bid the type of flying you want. In your case you are senior and want weekends off and there are four specific days you also want off. You like three day trips and you like to start in the morning but not too early. Click into the Off Days screen and click on all of the days you want off.
Then click on Pairing Properties and click on Pairing Length. Select three day trips and click bid. Then click Report Between and set your report time window, say between 08:00 and 12:00. Click bid. Repeat the Report Between bid, this time open the time window, say 07:00 to 12:00. And repeat again, opening the window, say to 07:00 to 13:00.
Now go to prioritized layers. Remove the checks on the second two Report Betweens. Check the middle one on layer 2 and the widest one on layer 3. No checks on any Report Betweens on layer 4.
Now decide which of the off days are most important to you. Place checks in layers 2, 3, & 4 next to them. The other off days check layers 2 & 3 if mid importance. The least important only check layer 1.
Now check next to the three day trip in layers 2, 3, & 4.
This strategy starts by asking for it all, but then gives the system more options at each layer, while it continues to hold onto what is most important to the bidder.
There are seven layers to express your preferences; we highly recommend that each crew member uses at least three or four layers.
Don't skip a layer.
When a blue bar appears on the bar chart in a Layer, no Pairings have been selected. When one skips a layer, the system considers all of the pairings that are still available before the skipped layer, and builds a line at that layer. The system will create a Pairing pool for the blue bar Layer, which adds all of the available Pairings for that bidder to the Pairing pools in that Layer. It will optimize a solution including the unchecked Layer, and treats it as if it was a checked Layer. There is a special case: if the system cannot build a complete line and there was a subsequent reserve bid, it would use the reserve bid.
Again, we say: Don't skip a layer.
Warning messages will appear below the matched pairing chart when specific incompatible bids are made. These messages are to alert crew members that they have made a bad bid and that they need to change their bid. The following warnings will appear:
· Cannot have trip mix and pairing length bids on the same layer,
· Cannot have trip mix and pairing ID on date bids on the same layer,
· Cannot have more than two trip mix bids on the same layer,
· Cannot have commutable work block and pairing length bids on the same layer,
· Cannot have commutable work block and pairing ID on date bids on the same layer,
· Cannot have multiple commutable work block bids on the same layer,
· Cannot have prefer and avoid deadheads on the same layer,
· Fly with bid should not co-exist with any other bids (except “min off days between work blocks”),
· Cannot have multiple groups of reserve line bids on the same layer,
· Reserve bid should not co-exist with any other bids.
Red Bar: “Cannot Display Bar (Query Limit Exceeded)”
In this last case a Red Bar appears. In exceptional cases, the requested Pairings may exceed the capacity of the web to display the number of pairings in the bar chart. In that case, a red bar with an inserted note, “cannot display bar (query limit exceeded)”. All of the pairings requested will be in that layer, but will not be shown with a green bar. All of the pairings in that layer can be viewed from the View Pairing Set hyperlink function.
By clicking on the View Pairing Set link you can see which pairings are available to you based upon your preferences in each layer. The listed pairings shown are those available in that particular layer. The pairing count is not cumulative. Each layer shows the pairings that have been defined by the checks in “Prioritized layers” for that layer, so if you check a pairing ID on date on three layers it will appear in each of those layers.
At the top of the screen there is a drop down window labeled Viewing Layer, click on the layer number you are interested in viewing.
The table shows all the pairings available in the layer selected. Displayed are the day of week and date, followed by the pairing numbers that operate on that date. In parenthesis after the pairing number is the pairing length. To view a pairing’s detail, place your cursor over the pairing (for older browsers you will need to click on the pairing number to view).
To view and remove the pairing from the pairing set, click on the date. And then click on the message “Click here to remove pairing ### on date” at the top of the individual pairing. You can click on the ‘Bring Back All Removed Pairings’ button to bring back all of the pairings that had been removed. This provides a method to remove specific pairings from the pool of available pairings. To return to layer 1 click on View Pairing Set on the left side menu, to return to the same layer click on the View Set button on top of the page. Each layer shows the pairings that have been defined by the checks in “Prioritize Layers” for that layer.
Clicking on the Print Bids link provides you a print function for all of your bids. The print out shows you the Preferences you selected from each category and the Layers that were selected for each Preference. The page starts with Username, Open period and Bid Package Information, followed by a listing of the bid categories that are used. The first category is pre-assigned activities, then reserve, off days, pairing and line properties. Each category contains the preferences bid, the bid is printed followed by a set of parenthesis containing its bid code (this code is mainly used for internal reference), followed by the layers that have been checked and then depending on the preference either date, weekday, value of credit or city or time, etc. If a category has not been bid it will not appear in the print.
By clicking on the Standing Bids link, you will see a set of preferences which are all unrelated to specific calendar dates, and unrelated to specific pairings. When no preferences are entered a “No Bids” message shows at the bottom of the preference list. Make a bid and the “No Bids” message will go away and a set of prioritized layers will be displayed. Enter your checkmarks on the appropriate layers and click “Save layers”. This is your method of defining choices within the Standing Bids.
At the bottom left there is the option to “Add Standing Bid into Current Bids”. Click this if you want to start your current bid by using your standing bid as a beginning point. Note, if there is an existing current bid your standing bid will be added to it. The “Replace Standing Bid with Current Bids” option will replace your existing standing bid with your current bid. There is also a “Clear Standing Bid” button. Click this if you want to start your standing bid over.
The Standing Bid function allows you to enter a bid that remains in the system. If you do not bid in the current bid month the system will use your Standing Bid.
Everyone needs to enter a Standing Bid!
The Standing Bids screen is composed of a list of General Preferences and a Prioritize Layer function. Please note that since the Standing Bids can be used for any month all references to any dates have been removed from this function.
Below is listed all of the available preferences for standing bids, the only one that is different is “Day of Week Off”, all others are described in pairing & line properties and reserve.
· Day-of-Week Off. This Preference allows you to request the day of the week off. Click the preference and select your desired day off (Sundays for example) and click Bid. Your standing bid will be for all Sundays off.
· Minimum Average Credit per duty period
· Pairing Length
· Deadhead Preference
· Include Split Duties
· Report Between
· Release Between
· Layover at City
· Min Connection (Turn) Time Preference
· Max Connection (Turn) Time Preference
· Bid Co-Domicile
· Min Layover Time
· Max Layover Time Preference
· Max TAFB Ratio Preference
·
Equipment. Preference
·
Max landings per duty period
·
Avoid Landing At City
·
Position Preference
· Min. Number of Days Off
· Fly With / Avoid (Not displayed for CA’s)
·
Target Line Credit Range
·
Min Off Days Between Work Blocks
· Trip Mix In A Work Block
· Commutable Work Block
· Cadence Preference
· Work Block Size
· For FO’s Only there is: Avoid Check Airman Trips
· For CA’s and FO’s Only there is: Allow Split-duty with 4-day Pairing
· Max Weekend Days Off
· Clear Award/Partial Line
By clicking on the View Prev Bids link you are able to see your previous month’s bid. A calendar appears showing the specific off days and specific pairings that were bid. There is also a listing of your general bids. Additionally, your award and the related pairings are displayed. Select the specific bid package from your drop down window. At the bottom of the calendar appears a button “Add these Previous Bids into Current Bid”. You may click on this button to add your previous bids from that displayed month into your current bid. Again, any bid that is pairing specific or Date specific will not be incorporated into you Current Bid.
By
clicking on the Line Award
link you will be able to review your line award (including all
pre-assignments), and a print image of all of the pairings that make up your
line.
This link immediately displays the awarded calendar line and if you want to review your bids click on “Show/Hide your bids” at the top of the page to review the bids that you submitted.
Below is an example of the line award that the crew member will see.
PUBLISHED on (server time) 4/2/2004 5:22:47 PM.
LINE 101 PAY 83:24
1 2 3 | 4
5| 6 7
8 9 10 |11
12| 13 14 15
16 17 |18 19| 20
21 22 23 24
|25 26| 27 28
29 30 1 | 2
3
TAFB
182:18 WE TH FR
|SA SU| MO TU
WE TH FR |SA
SU| MO TU WE
TH FR |SA SU| MO
TU WE TH FR
|SA SU| MO TU
WE TH FR |SA
SU
LN
CR. 83:24 3502
| 1724 1742176835043521| 1A02 | | 35043682| |
OFF 16 DH
2:44 C/I DEN *
* * DEN * *
DEN DEN DEN DEN * *
* * HDN DEN *
* * *
* * DEN SAT MCI SFO DEN *
PRIORITY P1 P2 P2
PN P2 P1 P1 P2 PN
POSITION FF FF FF
FA FF FF FF FF FF
DTY 117:23 BLK 80:18 3502=/0719/1816/0636, 1724=/0742/2032/0747, 1742=/0833/2119/0749, 1768=/1103/2040/0717, 3504=/0735/1457/0541, 3521=/0932/2028/0550, 1A02=/1545/1812/0905, 3682=/0829/2030/2432
The calendar format shows the calendar day and day of week.
The pairing numbers are shown on the next line. The following line shows “-“s for work days and “*”s for off days, and layover city codes.
Below is the line that shows PRIORITY for each awarded trip (P1, P2, P3, … P7, or PN, or CN). These codes represent the layer from which that pairing was selected. PN means that the system ‘filled’ the line with that pairing.
Optional: The flight-attendant position on each awarded trip (FA or FF) is shown below the PRIORITY line, starting with the label POSITION.
Below the pairing code is listed the duty, block and the pairing number and the report time, the release time, and the credit value of that pairing.
The last line shows the total Pay, TAFB, L1, Credit (CR.), OFF days and Deadhead Time (DH).
The L1 which is displayed between TAFB and CR tells the bidder the last layer the system used to construct this line. The layers are labeled either L1, L2, L3, … L7, or LN. LN means that the system went past your last layer in order to build the line. This is extremely important to understanding your award results.
There are 4 pre-assignment codes in the Line Award. They are C/I (Carry-In), L (Leave), V (Vacation), and T (Training).
C/I is counted as duty and as a work day.
L represents all pre-assigned activities that are not counted as duty and are off days.
V represents all vacation days. These days are not counted as duty and are off days.
T represents all pre-assigned activities that are counted as duty and are counted as working days.
Additional Notes on Labeling of Pairings in the Award and Solution Layer:
Pairings are marked as P1, P2 … PN or CN in the awarded line. The pairings marked with a P indicate the layer (pairing pool) in which the pairing was first bid. If the pairing was not one selected by the bidder it is marked as a PN. When pairings are marked with a C they are pairings that are needed to cover flying. This can occur on holidays or when many pre-assignments (vacation, training or leave) are scheduled on the same day of the month. The system based on seniority will require that an individual fly on a particular day, if there is a pairing in one of their pairing pools that matches this need then the system will use that pairing and will mark it with a C and the pool number the pairing came from. If there are no pairings bid that satisfy the requirement the system will solve in LN and mark the pairing CN.
The lines are marked with an L1, L2 …LN to indicate the system solved in a specific layer. The L number states all conditions were satisfied at that level. A L number before LN means that the line constraints are satisfied using pairings that were bid. When LN appears, it means that the line could not be completed with the bids that were submitted. LN can also be caused by required coverage, when it is a CN. When the system is in LN it does not consider any line properties bid but will use the pairings that have been bid. Hence a completed line can be marked with LN and show P1’s, if there is a PN or CN then the line will always be marked LN.
View bids
and personal reasoning report on the Line Award page:
There are two addition links right above a crew member’s line award section: Show/Hide Your Bids and Reason Report
Clicking on the Show/Hide Your Bids link enables the system to display your bids on a calendar and short bidding format, similar to the bids showing on the Pairings or Pairing Properties links.
The Reason Report links opens a new window that contains your personal reasoning report. You may review or print your reasoning report from that window.
The reasoning report for each crew member consists of two portions:
Portion 1: The header portion:
Line 1: * seniority number
Line 2: Crew member’s employee ID, seniority number, and the layer that finished the line award.
Next line (appears only when needed): Required minimum line value for this line, as a result of the awarding process’ calculation.
Next line (appears only when needed): Dates that require this crew member to cover that is also based on the awarding process’ calculation.
Example:
* 68
ID 012345,
SENIORITY 68, LN awarded
REQUIRED MIN.
LINE VALUE: 86:46
COVERAGE
DATE(S): 090307 090308 090309 090310 090311 090312 090313 090315
Portion 2: The pairing pool portion:
The pairing pool portion lists all pairings in each layer.
Each pairing on the list is presented by the date it operates, followed by the pairing ID. A number in the parentheses following the pairing ID is the length of the trip. For instance, 090324 3188-(2) means the two-day pairing 3188 operates on March 24, 2009
The reasons for what happened to these pairings in each pool could be as follows:
· The above pairings awarded to seniors, if there were pairings awarded to seniors.
· The pairings awarded to you, if a pairing in this layer that was awarded to you.
· The pairing violated work rules, with explanation of which rule was violated.
· The pairing was replaced by lower layer pairings. This message indicates that due to the line constraints, required coverage dates, or minimum line values, this pairing was not awarded to you. Instead, it was replaced by lower layer pairings in order to satisfy the line constraints. A typical example would be trying to meet the requested line credit range. Any preference in the Line Properties category could cause this to happen.
·
The above pairings conflict with the already
awarded pairings, if there are pairings in this pool that do conflict with
awarded pairings to you from prior layers.
If the line award finished in a layer, for instance, layer 5, then the reasoning report would not show the pairings for that layer, because pairings in that layer completed the line. In addition, a crew member that was awarded with a reserve line would not get a reasoning report.
Example:
LAYER 1:
090328-3158
090328-3195 090328-3300 090328-3318 090328-3366 090329-3187
090329-3192
090329-3233 090329-3238 090329-3252 090329-3295 090329-3383
090330-3102
090330-3122 090330-3123 090330-3186 090330-3216 090330-3236
090330-3329
090330-3331 090331-3123 090331-3183 090331-3185 090331-3329
090331-3348
The above
pairings awarded to seniors
090324
3188-(2) awarded to you
090328
3161-(2) awarded to you
090331
3156-(2) awarded to you
090303
3201-(2) not enough off days between work blocks
090303
3322-(4) exceeded max. block time per week
090313
3232-(3) 24 in 7 violation
090322
3294-(4) replaced by lower layer pairings because of line constraints
090307-3311
090308-3341 090310-3266 090310-3280 090310-3324 090320-3361
090322-3294
090324-3280 090325-3305 090328-3164 090328-3169
The above
pairings conflict with the already awarded pairings
LAYER 2:
No additional
pairings in this pairing pool
LAYER 3:
3132-090328
3158-090328 3195-090328 3300-090328 3318-090328 3366-090328
3187-090329
3192-090329 3233-090329 3238-090329 3252-090329 3295-090329
(continues…)
By clicking on the Print Award link you will be able to print out your line award and a list of the pairings that make up your line. This link displays the awarded calendar line and if you want to review your bids click on “Show/Hide your bids” at the top of the page to review the bids that you submitted.
To print the Award you must scroll to the bottom
of the “pairing” page and Click ‘Print This Page’. When the printer dialog box
comes up, click on “OK”. You will receive a print out at the local printer. To
return click “Close This Page” also found at the bottom of the page. Note, if the bids were shown, they will be
printed otherwise the bid print will not be included.
Simply click on the Log Out link to get out of PBS and back to the Corporate Web Page. Everything will be saved.
Always Log Out. It closes your session and saves all bids.
·
Specific
day of month
·
Day of
week
· Pairing ID on a date
· Pairing ID
·
Minimum Average Credit per Duty Period
· Pairing Length
· Pairing Length on Date
· Deadhead Preference
· Include Split Duties
· Report Between
· Report Between on Date
· Release Between
· Release Between on Date
· Layover at City
· Layover at City on Date
· Min Connection (Turn) Time
· Max Connection (Turn) Time
· Bid Co-Domicile
· Min Layover Time
· Max Layover Time
· Max TAFB Credit Ratio
·
Sub -
Equipment.
·
Max
Landings per Duty Period
·
Avoid
Landing At City
·
Position
Preference
· Min. Number of Days off
·
Fly With /
Avoid
·
Target
Line Credit Range
· Min Off Days Between Work Blocks
· Trip Mix In A Work Block
· Commutable Work Block
· Cadence
· Work Block Size
· Max Credit
· Allow Pairing-Pairing On The Same Day
· For FO’s Only there is: Avoid Check Airman Trips
· For CA’s and FO’s Only there is: Allow Split-duty with 4-day Pairing
· Max Weekend Days Off
· Clear Award/Partial Line
· Preferred Reserve Type
· Day-of-Week Off
When
you place multiple general checked preferences on the same Layer, it is important to understand the logic the system uses
in processing the preferences.
When
2 or more preferences are checked on the same Layer the system applies either
an ‘or’ logic
or an ‘and’ logic. Preferences within a category
are ‘or’. Preferences across categories are
‘and’. Some specific examples are listed below.
Or
example: If you bid to fly both 3 and 4 day trips (same category) on the same
layer, no other preferences checked, the system considers this to be a bid for all 3 day trips,
all 4 day trips, ‘or’ any combination of
3 and 4 day trips.
And example:
If you bid to fly 4 days and layovers in PHX (two different categories) the
system considers this to be a bid for 4 day trips that layover in PHX. Both
conditions (4 day trip ‘and’ layover in PHX) must be present.
For example: If the checked preferences are:
4 day trip
SAN layover
PHX layover
The system interprets this as a request for 4 days trips only ‘and’ the
4 day trips being considered must have at least one layover in either PHX ‘or’
SAN.
For example: If the checked preferences are:
3 day trip
4 day trip
SAN layover
PHX layover
The system interprets this as a request for 4 ‘or’ 3 day trips only
‘and’ the 4 day or 3 day trips being considered must have at least one layover
in either PHX ‘or’ SAN.
For example: If the checked preferences are:
3 day trip
4 day trip
SAN layover
PHX layover
1200-2300
Report Between
The system interprets this as a request for 4 ‘or’ 3 day trips only
‘and’ the report time must be between 1200-2300 ‘and’ the 4 day ‘or’ the 3 day
trips being considered must have at least one layover in either PHX ‘or’ SAN.
For example: If the checked preferences are:
1 day trip
2 day trip
5:00 Min.
Credit
1200-2300
Report Between
Cadence
The system interprets this as a request for 1 (locals) ‘or’ 2 day trips
only ‘and’ the 1 (locals) ‘or’ the 2 day
trips being considered must have at least 5:00 Min. Credit per duty period
‘and’ the Report Between (report time) must be between 1200-2300 ‘and’ each
work block must start on the same day-of-week across the whole month.
If your intent is to fly specific pairings on specific dates or any of the dated preferences, bid those preferences on a layer by themselves. If you combine them with general undated preferences you could receive any combination of those preferences even if the specific dated preferences were available.
The overall optimization process starts after all inputs are loaded to the PBS Line Generator (includes: current month’s pairings, carry in pairings, pre-assignments, line building parameters and crew member preferences).
The first process is to generate possible lines for every crew member based on their first choices (layer 1 bids). We can generate as many as 500,000 lines. For small bases we generate all the possible legal lines.
The second step is to score all the generated lines based on which line conflicts the least with lines more junior to them.
The third step is to set aside the least competing line for the most senior crew member, and it must be complete and legal. These lines will contain all first choice pairings if they exist in the bid package. The setting aside process is continued until a partial line is reached.
In the fourth step, we are starting with the first partial line. The first thing we do is to look down at all of the pairings below this crew member (more junior) and search for first choices to complete the line. Remember we only generated 500,000 lines in the first process, we did not do a completely exhaustive search (actually in small bases we do but in large bases we need to take another look). If we can complete the line with first choices we do and move to the next partial line. If we don’t complete the line we move to the next step.
In the fifth step, we fill the partial line with second layer choices, if not completed we will fill with third layer choices, and so on until we have used all of the choices. The number of the layer that is finally used is printed on the awarded line (it is in the last line of the print between TAFB and Credit).
If the fill does not complete the line we will then optimize at the last layer bid utilizing all of the selected P1’s, P2’s …P7’s and the line properties from the last layer. The process favors the pairings from the highest layers but will in fact exchange an existing P1 for an available P2 or P3…P7 in order to complete the line.
If we still cannot complete the line or satisfy line constraints, we will move to LN and again optimize the pairing set this time holding the line constraints and allow other available pairings into the solution (PN’s).
We use pairings that fit, when there are multiple solution choices we take the one that conflicts the least i.e., the most junior or from open time. If no solution exists we leave a partial line. We continue this process until the last line is built.
Solution feasibility is checked in each optimization process. Before each line is set aside, the system looks down on each calendar day and verifies that there are enough line holders to cover all the flying on that day. If there are enough the line is set aside. If this line holder is needed to cover flying the system looks to see if there is a bid pairing that will fit. If there is it will be marked C#, if no bid pairing is available then a CN will be used. In some cases a line is set aside because there are enough junior line holders to cover the pairings but subsequently when the junior lines are being built the system encounters conflicts caused by legalities and these pairings cannot be covered. These are the pairings that end up in open time.
A Good Bid has a number of pairings available appropriate to one’s seniority and there are no logical conflicts in the bid. The bid contains choices in at least three layers. If the bidder is mid seniority then by layer 3, the bidder should have 50% of the pairings available.
A Bad Bid has no pairings available on layer 1 and no other layers bid. A Bad Bid contains logical conflicts. A Bad Bidder bids only layer 1, unless you are number 1 on the seniority list (but be sure you have made enough selections to build a complete line).
As an example, a bid that is not so good bids 13% available pairings when at 60% of the seniority list. One might get lucky, but bid more choices and give the system more options to build a line of your liking rather than just fill the line.
Bidding specific pairings on dates will over rule off days. No other bid will over rule off days.
Suggest bidding only specific pairings on layer 1 and then more general bids on layers 2, 3, and so on. This insures that the specific pairings are the only P1’s.
Bid report between. Bidding multiple report times on the same level is allowed. Be sure that the times do not conflict. Bid a report window such as 0500 to 0700 and another window as 0900 to 1200. This example would tell the system to select pairings that did not report during the commute rush (avoid 0701 to 0859). Note that the time windows should not overlap.
Do bid the more constraining report times on layer 1 and relax on the next layers.
Release between behaves the same way.
When you bid a min or max layover time preference the system excludes all locals (this has been changed). Note: the search will exclude the locals but on prioritize layers you will get the locals.
Max TAFB credit ratio. Don’t bid multiple ratios on the same layer (the system takes the most constraining one); again relax the ratio on subsequent layers. As the ratio gets larger you are away longer for the same amount of credit.
Min Off Days between Work Blocks. Bid the more constraining bid in layer 1 and again relax in subsequent layers. For example, bid “Min Off Days between Work Blocks” 3 on layer 1 and then 2 on layer 2, and then maybe 1 on layer 4.
If one were to bid layer 1 as 1 off and layer 2 as 2 off; the system honors the line legalities of the first layer. So in this case at layer one a partial line is built and there is a single day off between work blocks, the system in layer two will hold the P1 pairings and as a result ignore “Min Off Days between Work Blocks” of two in layer two.
Target Line Credit Range. Bid a range, the system is trying
to find a combination of trips that when added
together will satisfy your request. We
suggest at least five hours, ie, 85 to 90.
Do not bid a point, for example 85 to 85. There is likely no combination of trips that
will hit that exactly.
When bidding “Min. Number of Days off” and “Target Line Credit Range” make the combination doable. For example, if you want lots of days off, maybe 15 then bid a line value that is worth 78 to 83 credit hours. Don’t bid 15 days off and also a line value of 100 to 110 hours. The system at the line properties level is trying to satisfy the 15 day constraint and if it fails will move to your next layer. At the same time it is checking the feasibility of the line based on the requested target line credit range and finds that it is infeasible and will also move to the next layer to try to build a feasible line. When the system cannot do both, the result satisfies neither because the system will move on to LN.
Note: the
refined definitions for “Trip Mix In a Work Block” and “Commutable Work
Block”. We define these special cases of
work block as a combination of two pairings and at least four days, with
preceding and succeeding off days. This solves the
situation of building combinations of 2, 2 followed by a 2.
Bidders who want to fly 3 day and 4 day commutable pairings need to bid the pairing length plus their desired report and release betweens on different layers.
When bidding in PBS the crew members need to think about the pairing pool that is created from their bids. Generally, bids should be designed so that the first layer is most specific, the second layer a bit less specific, the third layer a fairly less specific, the fourth layer general and the fifth layer more general. So in terms of the pairing pool size, the first layer adds specific pairings and each layer adds more pairings. Keep in mind that the system will award as many of the layer one pairings as it can.
Some bids will add pairings while others are conditioning bids and will reduce the number of pairings in the pairing pool. For example: I bid four day trips, all of the four day trips will be in my pairing pool. If I next bid a report time window of say 07:00 to 11:00 on the same layer, this will limit the pairings in my pool to four day trips that report between 07:00 and 11:00.
With this in mind, we should review some of the bidding preferences.
Pairing length: These bids enable the bidder to specify the length of trips that are desired, they can be one day, two days, and including all the different lengths available in their base (their bid package). Also, if available, is a special case – length called a split duty trip. Split duty trips are special pairing lengths because they don’t have a layover (legal rest), they are one duty period and they contain a sit (connection) greater than five hours, note that when bidding Split Duty trips the layover and connection bids do not apply. So think about pairing length as 1 day (locals) trips, two day … & split duty trips.
In order to specify particular qualities of a pairing length, the bidder can include conditioning bids; report, release, avoid landing at city, max landings per duty period and so on. Remember to note the exceptions for split duty trips.
Also, split duty trips are not included unless the bidder has bid “include Split Duties” that’s because there is a system default to avoid them.
Conditioning bids: Conditioning bids (such as report, release, avoid landing at city, max landings per duty period, layover at city, connection time … and so on) when bid alone will add to the pool all pairings (except split duty trips) that meet the criteria bid. So if I bid layover at SFO, all pairings that layover in San Francisco will be added to my pool. Similarly, if I bid avoid landings at ABI, all pairings that don’t land at ABI will be added to my pool. And likewise if I bid weekends off, all pairings that don’t touch weekends will be added to my pool.
On date bids: These are special bids because they will bring into the pool those pairings that meet the specified dated criteria. Split duty trips will not be included unless Include Split Duties trips has been bid. Bidding “off days” and “on date bids” will not increase the number of pairings in your pool (only those pairings that satisfy your “on date bids” will be included) but the off day bid will reduce your pool if an “on date bid” pairing operated on the specified off day. The exception to this is bid “Pairing ID on Date”.
Bidding “On Date” bids on layer 1 by themselves is strongly recommended!
An example will show why. If you want to fly any pairings that are release on the 7th, between 12:00 and 17:00, and three day trips. You will bid the release on layer 1 and the three day trips on layer 2. The pairing pool on the matched pairing chart shows the pairings that qualify for the release time as bid on layer 1 and the added three day trips on layer 2. Note that one of the three day trips starts on the 7th. This is because the “release on date” bid only excludes those pairings that release on the date which are not in the release time window. Again, “On Date” bids will only exclude the pairings that do not meet the constraint on the specified date.
1. How to bid for maximum credit value
Use the “Target Line Credit Range” preference.
Bid for maximum credit value by setting a high credit range (e.g. 95-100 for RJ CAs & FOs) at layer 1. If one of your main objectives is to receive a high credit value line, then keep that range clicked throughout all the subsequent layers.
Note: The company sets the line credit window for each base, fleet and position.
2. How to bid for maximum block time
The system calculates all preferences in terms of credit. The only time block is used is to calculate legalities.
3. How to bid for efficient trip/duty rigs
There are two preferences a crew member can bid depending on their definition of efficient trip.
Use “Minimum Average Credit per DP” to bid pairings with a credit value per duty period equal to or greater than your preference. On the other hand if you really want to be “Away From Base” for as little time as possible, then bid the “Max TAFB credit ratio” preference (time away from base divided by credit). This preference looks for trips that are tight (least TAFB for the most credit) not necessarily trips with the highest credit value.
4. An accurate description of when & how to use (as well as the functionality) of the Clear Award/Partial Line preference.
The Clear Award/Partial Line preference is on the first layer after the layer to be cleared. In other words the crew member bids a series of preferences on layer 1. Their thinking is that they want to hold all of pairings on layer 1 to make a legal line, and if that is not possible then they want to throw away those preferences and start over from layer 2, then click Clear Award/Partial Line on layer 2. The Clear Award/Partial Line preference can be applied to multiple layers. If the Clear Award/Partial Line preference is checked on layer 4, the system will throw away all of the bid results and the bid requests from layers 1-3 and start over at layer 4 if the system could not build a legal line out of layer 1-3.
Can “Clear Award/Partial Line " be used in multiple layers?
Yes
5. An accurate description of when & how to use (as well as the functionality) of the cadence preference.
“Cadence” is a preference that is a
line property. The system tries to start
work blocks on the same weekday. Use this preference when bidding very
general, i.e., bid any four day trip worth 5:00 per duty period and
cadence. The when is subjective, our
thinking is to use it when a regular schedule
is important but the actual days of work are not. Note:
If you have already bid specific pairings that start on different week
days or off days on different week days then cadence is compromised. Because cadence is a line constraint it
forces the system to move to the next layer to try to build a complete line
when there are conflicting elements.
6. Why should we bid specific pairings in a dedicated layer and general preferences in a subsequent layer? What other preferences are acceptable in the same layer as the specific pairing?
We suggest bidding only specific pairings on layer 1 so that they are the only P1s. This assumes that these are the most important. Bid general preferences in subsequent layers. The why is this makes the specific pairings P1 and they do not have to compete with other P1 pairings. Then continue to bid the off days with the general bids.
7. Browser back buttons do not work
Yes, we see this too. The browser does not see the entire application. We ask that you do not use the browser back buttons. Use the links on the left hand side of the screens to go the page you want.
8. With no bids entered, matched pairings chart sometimes show 50% of occurrences.
The chart does not count the split duty trips, because the default is no split duty trips.
9. Is matched pairing chart always cumulative?
It is always cumulative until the “Clear Award/Partial Line” preference is used.
10. Exactly what preferences (both pairing and line properties) does the chart display?
The chart displays pairings available based upon the pairing preferences and line preferences. If a line preference is bid alone in layers 1 all pairings are available. Trip Mix is the exception.
Remember that the pairing and pairing property preferences determine the pairings available to build your lines. The line properties set line constraints and feasibility.