The PBS MOU gives the pilot group the ability to waive the 4 Day Off requirement. The JPWG has taken that concept a bit further in order to maximize bidding flexibility and the overall
outcome of your individual awards. As such, you may waive the 4 Day Off requirement down to 3 Days, 2 Days, or 1 Day, and you can change this waiver in each bid group within a bid month. N-PBS is programmed to honor the 4 Day Off requirement if not waived by a bidder.
We recommend, if you are willing to waive your 4 Days Off, that you do not waive it in your first bid group. You can attach an “Else Start Next” to an important Set Condition or Negative Statement to instruct PBS to clear your line and move to your next bid group if it cannot find you a line that honors that specific bid statement and with at least 4 days off between groups of work days. In this next bid group, you can copy/paste everything from the previous bid group but add in the 4 Day Off waiver, down to 3 Days. We can repeat this again if you are willing to accept a schedule with 2 Days Off in between groups of workdays, and again for 1 Day Off as a
Using this cascading strategy, if you can have your preferences honored with 4 Days Off, you’ll get it. If not, you’ve instructed PBS to attempt the same preferences with the waiver, cascading from 3, to 2, to 1 day off required.
A relatively junior line holder will most likely need to include a waiver of the 4 Days Off at some point in his bid sheet if he has an expectation of having all or most of his bid preferences honored. While it is true that “any” line may be possible for that junior bidder with 4 days off, it most likely will not be possible to also honor his other bid preferences. In that way, each bidder will have to decide for him/herself how important the 4 days off is, and whether it is more
important than having, say, Weekends Off, or Commutable 4 Day pairings, or being awarded a line within the Minimum Credit Window. This is why we included the “Waive to X” function and allowed it to be used in a cascading fashion from one bid group to the next. So, you can start by not waiving it, then waive to 3, then waive to 2, and then to 1, in each subsequent bid group. You get what your seniority can hold, and also get all preferences your seniority can hold. Waiving the 4 Day Off requirement will most likely result in a higher likelihood of a line being possible that honors your other bid preferences. There is most definitely a give/take here, and each bidder must decide for him/her self whether the 4 Days Off is more of a priority than having the other bid preferences honored.
Below we see and example of how a bid might look for a pilot wishing to waive 4 Days Off. As you can see, we have used the “Else Start Next” function in the bid, which instructs PBS to move to the next bid group if unable to meet the Prefer Off statement it is attached to. Notice that there is no ESN in the last Pairings Bid Group above Reserve and the last Reserve Bid Group. This will allow PBS to deny part or all of that preference in that bid group to complete the line.
Commutability
If a bidder desires to submit a bid that takes into account commutability, this can be easily accomplished. Below, we see an example bid group in which the bidder “defines” commutable pairings as those with a Check In after 0900 and a Check Out between 0900 and 2000. We use a range to define the Check Out time because PBS could award a pairing that checks out just after midnight (00:35 for example) if we used “Pairing Check Out < 20:00. Also remember, we must always keep the general concept of bidding Conditional Statements first, followed by Negative statements, and then Award statements.
**IMPORTANT** Do not use “Avoid” statements to bid for commutability.
As you can see, this bidder begins his Award statements with the most specific bids, which are bids for specific pairings that were sorted and added using the Pairings tab. Next, he adds an
Award statement using what he determines is a commutable trip, and further adds that such trips must be over 25:00 credit. NOTE: make certain you have correctly used the < and >
symbols, as they are easily mistaken for each other.
You can see that each Award statement gets less specific as you go down the bid sheet, until you reach the last line, which is “Award Pairings”. Remember, if N-PBS reaches this line in its completion attempt, it will attempt to use ANY pairing in the pairing pool to bring your line up to and above the minimum/threshold. Also, an “Else Start Next” could also have been added to the Prefer Off or Set Condition, and a subsequent bid group created with a new list of bid preferences.
Turns (Day Trip Lines)
Depending on your base, and the number of single day trips available in the monthly set of pairings, you may desire to bid for a line containing only day trips. Below is an example of a bid group that could result in such a line award.
You will notice that this bidder has first preferred a minimum of 2 weekends off. Next an Award Statement is entered that asks N-PBS to award any available 1 Day pairings that exceed a credit of 7:30. So, N-PBS will award as many of these pairings as possible before moving on to the next Award Statement. Next, N-PBS will see the second Award Statement, which asks for 1 day pairings that exceed 7:00 credit. N-PBS will now continue to build this bidders line using any available pairings that meet this criteria.
Using this strategy, this bidder will receive a turn line (assuming there are enough single day pairings not assigned to senior bidders), that contain the highest possible credit per day. Remember, N-PBS will award pairings using each Award Statement individually, from the top down, until the line is at or above the Threshold (or Minimum, if in Denial Mode).