I have put in my March bid and look forward to finding out how things turn out. I've bid heavily for Ultra Long Haul, and normally would pick up two in this bid group.
I really can't see that happening with the the new rules. Not to mention all the other rules that are already in place. The pilot must be current in this region, that region, ULR, turnarounds, the ridiculous "variant" rules (which essentially allow the company to break their own FTL's), must have flown such and such a variant within the last blah, blah. It's impossible to second guess. It feels like a complete waste of my time bothering to bid at all.
I have a feeling the pilots who are doing "Sweet FA" on their reserve are B777 FO's. I have talked to a few who had it easy recently. We must be a bit top heavy there. I had reserve recently, 98 hours in one month and managed to fly from one side of the world to completely the opposite side in just over a week. Needless to say I wasn't sleeping well nor at the appropriate times.
The CRS bidding system has worked very well at other operators but EK must fiddle...... Whilst Rome burns.