WESTJET- Kronos Bidding System

[SKYCAMEL]

Can any pilots in Westjet make some comments about the Kronos Preferential Bidding system you use? Do you like it, do the rosters turn out OK, what dont you like about it and what training did the company provide when you started using it? Our company in OZ are looking at it and I would appreciate it, if anyone has some good or bad feedback.

Thanks

[Slapshot]

The Pilot group does not use KRONOs... Sorry. We use ADOPT. KRONOS is used by the office types to keep track of their time.

[SKYCAMEL]

Thanks Slapshot,

But Kronos and ADOPT are one and the same thing now. Kronos bought out ADOPT a while ago. Could you comment about your ADOPT system then please.

[Slapshot]

That would make sense as the office types "swipe" in and out of the office with KRONOs...

I think it is really a case of the "User" and the desires of the "User" to offer choices that the Pilot Group find attractive...

We don't bid per se, we request days off, or certain pairing's and with a set of preferences the system spits out a schedule. I'm happy with the system and find my requests are honoured 9 times out of 10. But then I'm not a high maintanence user... Give me the days off I want and fly me to the limit and I'm happy.

Other's don't like the system as it doesn't give them what they want... Are they being too specific in their requests? I don't know...

I think whether the system is "good" or not will depend on what your management has set for parameter's... A good relationship between the Pilot Group and Management as far as scheduling will go a long way...

Good luck.

[SKYCAMEL]

Thanks Slapshot.

[SKYCAMEL]

Are there any other Westjet Pilots that would like to provide their thoughts about the system you use? It would be most appreciated.

[CaptW5]

Slapshot asked for comments to your question on a different forum, so you might (or might not) get some answers here or via PM. But I'll go out on a limb here and say that it has not been uniformly warm received (ahem ) by the pilot group.
It has generated some heated discussion. Not sure if the problem is related to the parameters as input by the company, or the complexities of requests of the pilots; but the result is that there are people that seem OK with the system and a large part of the pilot group that hates it with a passion.

[xkbal]

I expect it will behave differently at every company as they input their own parameters into it. That being said, I was less than thrilled with the first few months that we had it. However after that I've been generally pleased with it. I believe that is a combination of the company changing some of their parameters and myself learning some of the logic behind the system so you know what to bid. It's not perfect, no system is. It doesn't have the human touch like when a person is doing the building but I think we are getting to the size where it would be very difficult to hand build schedules.
As I said there are problems with it but of the people I talked to who are unhappy with it a lot are bidding in such a way to gaurantee that they will be unsastified. Don't get too carried away with request, ie. late checkin, early checkout, 4 days off between pairings with overnights in Cancun and stops in St. John's. If you try stuff like that the items you request may be mutually exclusive. I find if I ask for the days off I need and then a few simple requests beyond that it generally works well. This month I had no particular days off so I bid 4 between pairings with late checkin and early checkout and I'm very happy.
Hope this helps