Originally Posted by
RexBanner
Bidline: essentially the company publish the Trip Lines (each individual line is a roster) 6 weeks or so in advance of the month in question. The pilot workforce then bids for these lines of work in seniority order. So in theory the most senior pilot in the seat in question is effectively writing his own roster as he knows exactly what trips he will be doing and also the days off. Pilots will bid for lines based on weekends off or destinations or, in the case of the most senior, both of these variables hence the notion of writing your own roster. There are only so many trip lines, those who don’t have the required seniority for any of their choices of lines will have their roster written for them by the company with the reconstituted trips of what is left over (blind line).
JSS: No real control whatsoever. You’re just expressing preferences for days off or particular types of trips/destinations but there is no guarantee that you will get any of what you want. It is not anywhere near as transparent as bidline. Still very seniority driven but there will also be inhibitors in place to stop the most senior just going to Cape Town (or insert your own desirable destination) four times a month. There are very real fears that inserting all of these inhibitors will end up in the programme being corrupted away from its original design, see the case of Carmen down in Gatwick where, in an attempt to please everybody, they have ended up with a programme that pleases nobody. That’s why Wiggy and others (including myself) have just described it as posh blindlines as even the most senior will have absolutely no idea what their roster will contain until the day of publication.
So whats new in that, you may perfectly reasonably ask if you’re coming from another airline. Trouble is it’s a severely retrograde step in being able to do what you want when you want and have control over the whole process, something that has been a unique selling point of BA for many years but is about to be a thing of the past.
Thank you for taking the time to explain that - much appreciated and very informative
