Decisions, decisions: Crew Bid!

Cheechako

Well-Known Member
A glimpse into the daily life of an airline pilot:

Each airline does it a little different, but the concept is universal. The monthly bid for schedules! Skywest publishes all the schedules on the 10th of each month. These schedules are called "lines." The lines consist of a series of "pairings." The pairings are basically trips- anywhere from locals to 4-day trips with the occasional 5-day thrown in. The lines and pairings are published in stapled booklets that are available at the crew lounges and the break rooms of the major hubs. Each domicile has its own book. Every month crews pour over the lines and pairings looking for that perfect schedule- one that fits in with our own personal schedule- weekends off, wednesdays off, birthdays, holidays, band camp, etc. These choices are due the morning of the 17th (entered via the Skywest employee website) and awarded that afternoon.

The hierarchy of pilots in a domicile determines how many choices one must make. When I was in Salt Lake City, I was in the 190s. That meant I had to look through the 230+ lines and list my favorite 190 (+3 for contingencies) in order of best to least. I am now #11 out of 45 in Colorado Springs so my choices are a litte easier to pick. It is still a challenge, especially with Thanksgiving in November. When I bid my lines, I look for locals or back-to-back 2-day trips with weekends off (me and the missus enjoy church-going and being together as often as possible). Impossible where I was in SLC, almost guaranteed here in COS- thus the move here this summer. I have a choice to make for November. I can get locals over the weekends (still able to go to Sat. church) and have the full week of Thanksgiving off (my folks are coming to town), or have weekends off (plus Turkey day) but have to work one day while my parents are visiting... ungh.

Decisions, decisions, decisions.....
 
Life must be tough man!
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Well at least I'm not far from holding a line surprisingly. Theres 21 lines in PSP for FO's and I'm 22 out of 27!

If I were you I'd take the Thanksgiving day off thing! I'm almost certain that if I'm on reserve through the holidays I WILL be called on those days to fly.
 
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Cough...Cough...

you know you are always only a phone call away from a perfect schedule.



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I'd imagine a lot of guys start "coming down with something" around the holidays
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.......poor reserve pilots
 
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Cough...Cough...

you know you are always only a phone call away from a perfect schedule.



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I'd imagine a lot of guys start "coming down with something" around the holidays
cwm27.gif
.......poor reserve pilots

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Dooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!
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I'd imagine a lot of guys start "coming down with something" around the holidays
cwm27.gif
.......poor reserve pilots

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Shh!

You never know when management is listening!

Especially around here it seems.
 
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Well at least I'm not far from holding a line surprisingly. Theres 21 lines in PSP for FO's and I'm 22 out of 27!

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Thinking line 21 is something along the lines of PSP-SBD-PSP-SBD-ONT-PSP-SBD-PSP or some equally torturous combo!
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Seven legs for a regional pilot? That'd have been a senior line back in my day!
 
Try DAY-SBN-MKE-SBN-DAY-SBN-MKE-SBN-DAY five days a week for a month then I'll humor your comment!

Or my first two months as a regional pilot: RFD-DTW-RFD-DTW-RFD-DTW-RFD
 
Rockford, Illinois if I'm not mistaken.

I can imagine that flying up into the UP on a regular basis in the winter would drive people made not only from the lack of scenery, but also due to the insane icing, wind, snow, rain, blizzards and heat waves that the UP is known for.
 
Here's been my schedule so far on reserve.

Day 1: Airport Ready Reserve for 5 hours.
Day 2: On call, 15 hours. No call, so mucho HDTV and computer time in the crashpad. Getting stir crazy.
Day 3: 2-day trip. One leg to SDF.
Day 4: After a 25 hour overnight in SDF, one leg back to CLE.
Day 5: An attempt to get released early so I can catch one of the last flights home to ORD.

I hate reserve.
 
Ready Reserve...OUCH, At least you had the pleasure of flying to SDF.

I am going to try to work Tgiving and make so $$.
 
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Rember this mantra:

Reserve sucks, commuting to reserve REALLY sucks!
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Yes sir! True!

You'll know a commuting reserve pilot when you ask what time it is, and they reply "where?"
 
I took a different tack. I trained my family early to get used to moving the holidays around. The kids loved it, a little early christmas before I left on a trip, christmas day, then some more late christmas when I got back. As for turkey day, plenty of mashed potatoes if dad wasn't there.

The upshot was I flew really good trips in November and December and didn't get heartburn about home for the holidays.

Later when I got really senior the kids thought it was boring to just do holidays on their actual days.

But then I'm not the sentimental type.

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I took a different tack. I trained my family early to get used to moving the holidays around. The kids loved it, a little early christmas before I left on a trip, christmas day, then some more late christmas when I got back. As for turkey day, plenty of mashed potatoes if dad wasn't there.

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This is what I plan to do. If it really comes down to it, we can have TWO b-day parties for the kids: one for them and their friends on the actual day, and another one for the family if I'm not there. I really don't see them complaining about that.
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Chris,
Do pilots get paid for time and half for working the holidays. Such as the holidays in the hospital.
 
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Chris,
Do pilots get paid for time and half for working the holidays. Such as the holidays in the hospital.

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Are you for real?
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