Bidding strategy

A walk through this fictional scenario should clear the fog.

John gets hired as a first officer in the Airbus 319. He flies a schedule in the United States that doesn’t have much in the way of international flying, except to Mexico and Canada. He flies as many as four legs per day, but the time between legs isn’t paid because he’s paid by the flight hour. The days can be long and stressful. John wants to cross oceans in the Boeing 787. The days start later, there’s only one leg, and the destinations are exotic.

Fast forward five years and John is still flying as an A319 first officer, but his seniority is quite good. No longer does he fly those four-leg days—now it’s two legs at the most. He can score those Caribbean destinations that were off-limits during his first few years. With his seniority, John has a decision to make. He can leave his senior spot in the right seat or chase that dream spot in the 787. He will make $50 more per hour, but his seniority will take a big hit. Once again, he will be junior and only capable of getting the less-desirable trips until he ratchets up the seniority pole.

He notices that his seniority allows him to hold a captain’s slot in his current Airbus. Being a captain is nice; you make the ultimate decision and you set the tone and pace for the crew that you manage. Plus, the compensation is $100 per hour higher than his current pay. But John’s mind harks back to his time as a junior first officer when he was flying four legs per day with ho-hum layovers.

What would you do? Perhaps you have a young family at home and being present as much as possible is of primary importance. In this business, seniority is everything. Do you want to secure vacations during major holidays when your kids are out of school? Only the higher-seniority pilots score those premium dates.

What if you’re not into blazing the traditional-family trail? Let’s say John is single or married with no kids or pets and his spouse loves to travel, too. Maybe it’s John’s time to try on that 787.

Fast forward one year and John isn’t very happy. He likes the higher pay, is amazed by the high-tech 787, and loves the layovers and easy start/finish times of his trips. The problem is, he can’t seem to sleep well on the airplane. On a 16-hour flight from New York to Beijing he sleeps maybe 20 minutes during his rest breaks. After he gets home, he is a wreck and spends most of his off days reacclimating himself to his home time zone. On the next available bid, John sees that he is now senior enough to hold a good schedule as captain on his old Airbus. It will allow him to score the higher pay and hold a decent schedule. Most important, he can stay within three hours of his home time zone.

This example describes a few factors at play when considering upgrade opportunities at an airline. Bottom line? It’s really all about what suits you best. Sometimes you don’t know what that is until you try it.