Unless you're part of the fleet/management structure or have manager in your title,
all roles that were previously entitled to a requested flight each month will have that privilege removed. For example, the Flight Safety managers will retain it along with Fleet Technical Pilots. CRM Instructors, CRS Bid Help team and Recruitment Pilots will not. How that will play out in the next few months will be interesting as this 'perk' was often the main incentive for fulfilling some of these voluntary duties so I suspect that some pilots may well leave these positions.
The idea behind this new system is for maximum use of automation with very little manual input. It will incorporate training and line bidding together rather than training working one month ahead via MyMint as is currently the case. Having many department offshoots with the requirement for planners to insert flight requests ahead of normal line bids would defeat that logic. The theory is that roster satisfaction should be improved for
all pilots as more of the previously sought after destinations will be available as training will have far less pre allocations. However, trainers will still be able to bid for flights that are training but within the seniority of their bid group. This should be fully integrated around February 2016.
As with many introductions, there will be teething troubles. Whether the new system can benefit those that will be disadvantaged by their requested flight remains to be seen. For some, I'd imagine, it may only serve as the catalyst to resign from these important roles.
Think carefully before sending in those CV's.
Harry