Welcome to our Flight Attendant Monthly Bidding Guide! This comprehensive guide is designed to assist Flight Attendants in bidding for their monthly schedules. It covers the basics of bidding and provides tips for different preferences and seniority levels. We hope you find this information helpful!
For this guide we will be using an example of a Flight Attendant who is #20 in seniority in their base.
The Basics of Bidding
Determine your Seniority
- Identify the number of Flight Attendants above and below your seniority.
- Divide your seniority number (20) by 4 to determine the number of trips you should bid each day (result: 5 trips).
- Calculate the number of Flight Attendants below you (60-20 = 40) to assess your likelihood of being a pure reserve, considering there are 10 projected reserve lines.
Review Base Projections
- Access the bid projections on the CBI home page.
- Each bid preference has a range. To find the range, subtract the highest hours from the lowest hours (81-72) and divide by 3 (9 / 3 = 3). This means there is a 3-hour window for minimum, average, and maximum preferences.
- Consider the following example for a bidding month:
- Days Off: 10
- Minimum: 72-75
- Average: 75-78
- Maximum: 78-81
- Reserve: 10
- If you have more than 10 Flight Attendants below you, it indicates that you can hold any line type based on your preferences.
Analyze the Percentage Working
- Find this information in the bid packet on G4.
- S.W.A.P > G4Connect > Inflight > Bid Reports & Awards > % Working.
- Please note that the percentages in CBI are not always accurate. It is best to reference the % Working located on G4 Connect for the most accurate numbers.
- Reference the Projected Off to determine the likelihood of obtaining desired days off.
- If the number of projected off days exceeds your seniority, you will likely hold the day off.
- Bid for days off that you can realistically hold to avoid disappointment.
If the projected shows three people off and you are number 20, you will likely have to work on that day.
Assess Available Trips
- Use the Monthly view tab in CBI to examine the trips available each day.
- Determine the number of trips you must bid at your seniority level.
As #20 in seniority, you need to prioritize 5 trips per day for each day you wish to work. These 5 trips will be your “backups” in case you cannot hold a certain trip due to seniority or legality.
Bidding Minimum, Maximum and No Preference
Bidding Minimum Hours
- Start by selecting the days you prefer to work.
- Place your top choices for each day in the preferred work section, ensuring you still have backup trip preferences. As #20 in seniority, you need to place 5 trips in the most preferred section until the lowest block for each trip equals the minimum hours projection.
- Once you reach the minimum block threshold, prioritize “day off” as the top choice for all other days. Number these days off from most important to least.
- If you want minimum hours and maximum days off, set “off” as your highest preference on every day.
- List the trips you prefer in order under the off days to ensure you receive your next preferable trip if you are unable to hold the day off.
- Place all undesirable trips at the very bottom of the global list or in the least preferred section.
- After ordering your least preferred trips for each day, number each day in reverse, starting with the most important day off at #31 and the least important day as #1.
- Desirable trips should be in the most preferred section under the day off preference.
Bidding Maximum Hours
- Start with the days you prefer to work.
- Bid 6 trips each day on the lowest flying days possible, with maximum block hours.
- Prioritize days off on the highest-flying days you can realistically hold, with backup trips of high block value. These days are likely to be dropped by others, allowing you to pick up trips from others or open time.
- By ensuring you bid high block hours, you guarantee that at least one person who bid low preference is awarded that, leaving more hours in the available trip stock for you.
Bidding No Preference
- No preference is a good option for those with high seniority (able to be awarded 1st choice) or those who have no specific preference for the hours they are awarded.
- This option is handy when your highest desired trips add up to more than your desired hour range. It prevents you from being assigned a small (2.5-hour) trip or an additional undesirable R period because you do not fit the exact hours required for low, medium, or high preferences.
- No preference allows you to bid within the range of anything that falls between low and high, creating a bigger range of hours to fit within.
Common Issues for High Seniority Flight Attendants
- If you choose to bid either high or low, ensure you add up all your hours accurately. Being off by even a fraction of an hour can lead to an unwanted trip being awarded.
- If you are senior but unable to hold the desired line value (e.g., you are number 3 and bid low, but only 2 people bid high), it may force you into no preference.
- Once you reach the desired hours, bid off as your top preference for the remaining days. This ensures that once you reach the bottom of the hours threshold, it stops assigning hours. If you have more trips as top preferences for any given day and haven’t reached the maximum hours allowed in the full hour range, it will continue assigning trips until one of two things happens:
- First, it will assign until you reach the desired hours.
- Second, it will assign until you have been awarded the highest preference for any given day.
Prioritizing Days Off
- Be realistic when selecting the days you want off.
- Merely having a seniority rank of 20 does not guarantee a day off if there are only 20 head off positions available on a specific day.
- Even if everyone above you bids for that day off, you may still not secure it.
- Consider the legality requirements for reserves.
- If a particular day off is of utmost importance to you, consider bidding for pure reserve if your in seniority is mid-range or lower. This strategy increases your chances of obtaining those desired days off as a reserve, which may otherwise be difficult to hold.
Final Steps
- Double-check your bid for accuracy.
- Ensure you have the required 11 hours of rest between each trip and that you are not bidding more than 6 days in a row.
- Keep in mind that the higher the working percentage, the more likely it will be assigned before the low-flying days.
- Must Work Days are solved first at the seniority level.
- If you have a must work day at your seniority level, those will take priority over your listed preferences and can potentially remove a preferenced trip if you have reached the maximum hours in your desired range.
- Save your bid frequently. Once you are done, save again, download the excel sheet, log out, and DO NOT log in again. If you need to make any changes, repeat these steps.
- If you bid low and cannot hold it, you will automatically default to no preference, and it will assign trips until you have reached the maximum range or your highest preference for all remaining days is DAY OFF.
We hope this guide helps you in successfully bidding your monthly schedules. If you have any further questions or concerns, please reach out to us at scheduling@twu577.org.