Hi Avid,
Here at FZ it is a straight seniority bidding system. Therefore people who joined way back at the beginning of the company do tend to get the pick of the trips (long day trips) and almost everything that they ask for. We have only had the bidding system in place since October last year (for pilots anyway, cabin crew may get it later this year), and so for the four and a half years before that the company was operating the rosters were all done by a rostering team with with no 'credit' if you like given to seniority.
Subsequently those that join more recently have compained that it is grossly unfair and that they will probably do most of the night flying and to the more unpopular trips such as Afghanistan, India during monsoon, double GCC sectors etc. To a degree that is true but what i think they fail to grasp is that with our expansion plans and the rate at which we are taking aircraft is that you will not stay junior for very long and as new aircraft arrive, people will arrive below you and so your seniority will rise and then they will be able to bid for better flights. Even now pilots at all seniority levels can bid up for eight requested days off a month (used to be just two RDO's!!!!) but can end up rostered with significantly more off days than that than that, 20 OFF in a month is the best i have seen so far.
Judging by the comments above it does seem as a rolling seniority system does not work too well as people in top bid receive almost nothing they want and bottom bids seem to get more than other months, a curious set up and also the rules on swapping seem so tight that there is very little manoeuvre on that.
Well thats the system we have and so far for the most part for many people here it does appear to be working and an awful lot better than what we had before. Must not forget too that must like an FMC, what you get out of the bidding process is only as good as what you put in the first place.
