Preferential Bidding System (PBS)

A way of bidding for monthly schedules that focuses on a pilot’s preference for specific pairings or trips. Pilots input their preferences for pairings, such as days of the week, location of overnights, and start and end times of trips, and the preferential bidding system searches through all of the available flight sequences for the purpose of assembling a monthly schedule that best reflects the pilot’s preferences. This is different from the “hard-line” system of bidding whereby the company creates and publishes a full month’s schedule of preassembled trip sequences that pilots review and then bid on. Regardless, both systems are awarded in pilot seniority order resulting in the more senior pilots having a much higher probability of receiving their preference.