I was wondering if someone could explain the Bid System. I know a flight attendant and she tried to explain it to me but it didn’t really make sense. I also noticed on the pilotjobs site under calculated earnings it gives a bid period dollar amount. What is this about?
Pat
Pat,
First as far as the pilotjobs site is concerned I’m not really sure what you’re referring to but I suspect it’s to give you an idea of how much you’d make each bid period (basically a month) based on hourly rates.
Anyway every months all pilots bid for their schedules for the following month. The reason it’s called a “bid period” and not simply a month is because (as you know) not all months have the same number of days (“30 days has Sept bla bla bla”) so they try and even them out (so a bid period may start on the 31st or on the 2nd, regardless it’s for your next month’s schedule). Now bid awards (what you get) is based on your seniority. You can bid whatever you want, whether you get it or not will be based on your seniority AND the everyone else’s preferences. I don’t want to complicate this further but there’s a common misconception that if you’re not senior you won’t ever get what you want. What senior allows you to do is get what you want when that’s what EVERYBODY wants. For example, Christmas. EVERYBODY wants Christmas off (even if they’re not Christian the kids probably are off) but only the most senior pilots will get it. BUT let’s say you’re Jewish and want Yom Kippur off. Well most pilots don’t even know what that is so you’ve got a good chance of getting it. Anyway back to bidding, virtually all airlines have what’s called PBS (Preferential Bidding System) and you can literally spend a week on your bid. You can put in every possible parameter (preference) you can think of. Where you fly, days off, days on, trip length, start time, finish time, people you don’t want to fly with, specific trips on specific days, want to fly max or min credit, you name it. Now whether you get it or not again depends on how many other people want the same thing and your seniority. So if you want all 4 day trips to BNA and you’re senior, you get it. If you want all 4 day trips to BNA and no one else does, you get it. BUT if what you want is what everyone else wants and you’re not senior you don’t. As I said you can bid EVERY preference and condition so you can bid your first preference, and your next, and your next ad nauseam. There are people who literally spend days on these bids and have pages of preferences. Me I’m lazy so I basically bid days off and destinations I like. The main take away is to never assume you won’t get something and bid what you want NOT what you think you’ll get because you never know.
Make sense?
Adam
Adam - This may be the pilot jobs site Pat is referring to: https://pilotjobs.atpflightschool.com/
Danielle,
That’s what I thought. I just couldn’t find the “bid period dollar amount” she was referring to.
Adam
So would it be better for a new pilot to try and request fewer preferences and be open to more availability?
Yes, by far. Junior pilots will not have much say in where they go, but it is always worth putting your preference in, just in case.
Pat,
When you’re new you had better be open because you will be getting the scraps and you’ll be flying when and where they need you to. That said nothing wrong with trying to get what you want.
Adam
Adam,
Thank you, that was my thoughts. I was planning on trying to be completely open to getting what ever I can and not complain about it. Honestly, I will just be thankful to be flying.
Pat
Just remember that when it’s day 5 and your day off gets rolled so you can fly to MAF and sit for 2 days. If you can do that you’ll have a long happy career.
Adam
I think I saw somewhere sometime that they go by digits of social security for placing the new hire classes, could be wrong…
Thomas,
When Adam and I were hired at ExpressJet there was only aircraft type, so we only had to bid domiciles. The airline knew how many pilots they needed in each base and we bid accordingly. At Continental we had several different fleets and bases available. Once you complete training, then you bid your monthly schedules, to include routes and days off.
Chris
Moustafa,
Some airlines use Social Security numbers, others use age.
Chris
Thomas, Thomas, Thomas (don’t think I’ve used that for a while?),
Think about it? Airplane, Base, Route and Days off? Are you really suggesting that a new pilot would bid Asia trips with Tues and Weds off and AFTER the airline would say “Oh ok, well the only plane we have flying to Asia with Tues and Weds off is the 787 out of SFO so you get that”?
Adam