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Bidding The Purser Position
Although the BidPlus program does not yet have a specific
Purser bidding feature, we are happy to announce that the BidPlus
program is already designed to provide you with several methods by
which to select and bid the Purser position. The concepts and
methods can be a bit tricky even without using a computer. So please
take your time and understand how the BidPlus program can make
things easier for you. Many of you are probably already using some
of these methods in your regular bidding.
1)
Configure Feature Method
a)
Configure Notes 1
b)
Configure Notes 2
2) Using Equipment as Bidding Criteria
3) Position Bidding
4)
Additional Notes
It
is highly suggested that you familiarize yourself with some of the
basic bidding features of this program prior to studying this
section, namely Configure, Criteria Selection, Understanding Banks,
& Position Bidding.
Configure Feature (top)
Begin by clicking on the Tools button at the bottom.
The
screen that you are presented with shows you all the possible F/A
staffing that the program will include in the search. By default,
everything should be checked including the "No Qualification" check
box on the top left. The languages should only be checked if you are
language qualified.
The
first thing you can do is to de-select everything except the 5 or 6
position lines or higher, depending on which of these are Purser
lines in your particular domicile.
Make sure that the 'No Qualification box stays checked!!
In other words, take the check out of the 2, 3, and possibly the 4
position boxes, as well as XSC lines at the bottom, as these are not
Purser position lines in most cases. That way, the only lines that
will be included in your search are wide bodies (and 757's that fly
International, like HNL). Then when you click OK, the box will
close, and you will see that the words 'Restricted Search' displayed
in red.
This is your indication that you have restricted your
search. The only thing the program is going to look for is what you
have checked.
The second thing to note is that, although
rare, some domiciles contain XSC 'F' position lines. If you want to look for
only the XSC 'F' positions, then you should de-select everything
else (except the No Qualification check box). When you click OK, the
box will close, and you will see that the 'Restricted Search' is displayed. This
again is your indication that you have restricted your search. The
only thing the program is going to look for is what you have
checked. If the XSC 'F' position is what you have checked **and those lines are
part of your bid package** then that is what will be shown to you when you search. You
can still apply your other criteria as normal (days off, check in
times, etc. ) but the only thing that will be included in your
search are the 'F' position XSC lines.
**Configure Note 1** (top)
XSC lines, whether
they are 'F' or 'E' or 'Y', are different then position bidding 'F'
or 'E' or 'Y'. XSC
lines are pre-determined 1 or 2 position lines, and as such, cannot
be position bid. Their position is pre-determined by their line
number according to the matrix in the cover pages. BidPlus
automatically indicates their position in each LOF display. Also,
not all domiciles have XSC 'F' (Purser) positions. The Purser
position at most domiciles will need to be bid by position bidding.
So, unless your domicile has specific XSC 'F' position lines, **DO
NOT** use the Configure feature XSC lines to try and bid the Purser
position. Details on Position bidding can be found by clicking
here.
**Configure Note 2 ** (top)
Be sure to put everything back to normal in the Configure
feature when you are done. This feature will remain exactly as you
have left it until you change it again. This goes for future bid
packages as well!!
Using The Equipment Criteria (top)
The
last thing that you can do is to search for the lines that only have
any wide body aircraft, or conversely, lines that have no (or no
more then a small percentage of) narrow body aircraft. Only this
time use the criteria statements on the Criteria Selection screen.
(This will be a specific criteria in a future version). But until
then, you will have to do separate statements for each
equipment.
You
should make your criteria statement say:
"I
want [any (or All)] of my line to have [any 747]" ...or
DC10s... or 777....etc.
When you are searching for specific wide body equipment,
then each equipment request should have its own Bank. This will help
to prevent you from creating a combination of criteria that does not
exist, and thus prevents the results of your search from being zero.
For example, if you input the requests "[Any] of my line to have
[DC-10s]" and "[Any] of my line to have [777s]" both in the same
Bank, then the result will probably be zero as there are not many
lines that contain both 777s and DC-10s in the same line. Remember,
the LOF must match your criteria combination EXACTLY.
Instead, for example, you would need to put "[Any] of my
line to have [DC-10s]" in the first Bank, and then put "[Any] of my
line to have [777s]" in the second Bank.
You
can also combine this with any other criteria you like. For each
successive Bank, you can just click Recall button at the bottom so
that you don't have to keep re-entering your criteria. Then just
change the equipment statement for each successive Bank, and then
search again.
A
more practical way to go would be to say:
"I want [None (or no more
then 10% or 20%)] of my line to have [any 737's] ...or 727 ...or A320...etc.
Using the second example with the "None" statement might
be more practical (even though the Purser position can be flown and
paid on narrow bodies as long as there is a wide body somewhere else
in the line) because you can create a "None" statement for each
narrow body aircraft in the same Bank without worrying about the
conflicts mentioned in the previous example. That way, you won't
have to specify specific wide body equipment that you DO want as
they will now automatically be included in your search by default.
By using the “None” statements, the narrow bodies have now all been
eliminated from the search, so you no longer need to concern your
self with them showing up in your results. You may add any other
additional criteria you like.
Position Bidding (top)
(Topic
Details)
Once you have all of your selections complete, you can
then apply your position bidding with the 'F' position first, and
then whatever other positions that you might want to bid. To use the
position bidding feature, make sure that you are on the Review and
Edit screen first. Then click on the F/Y button in the button bar to
open the Position Bidding feature.
If
you look in the Position bidding dialog box...
...you will see two choices right below the 8 position
boxes. The choices are:
Group by Line Number
Group by Position
Currently, by default, we have Group by line number selected. The program will
automatically duplicate each line number for each position that you
add in those boxes. (You cannot position buddy bid at this time.)
So, for example, if you are bidding line numbers 10, 20, & 30,
and you apply positions F, B, C, & # (the # sign indicating a line number bid with no position
attached), then...
Grouped by line number, they look like this:
10F 10B 10C 10 20F 20B 20C 20 30F 30B 30C 30,
etc.
However, if you choose group by position, then they will
look like this:
10F 20F 30F 10B 20B 30B 10C 20C 30C 10 20 30, etc.
***Additional
Notes***
(top)
Domestic qualified Purser positions are in any line
containing ANY wide-body segments. Therefore, it is entirely
possible that a Purser line will have a narrow-body trip or leg
thrown in, probably only at the beginning or end of the scheduled
month. Many times, there are lines in the bid packets that are a
collection of orphan trips from the preceeding group of
trips.
With
this in mind, selecting "I want my line to have NO (737, 727,
A320...) flying" will preclude these purser lines (which pay qual
Purser pay for all segments, including the narrow-body, because of
line
guarantee). Better might be: "I want no more than 90% (or
50%, or 10%) of my line to have (737, 727, etc.), allowing for some,
or at least one, wide-body trips (but, unfortunately, also allowing
for just another type of narrow-body in each
statement).
Also, though rare, SFO has had in the past few
years 3, 4, and 5 pos lines that included the Purser on at least one
wide-body segment. These lines were predominantly narrow-body (incl.
757) lines, that were also base crew for a few D10 and 777 legs
augmented with XSC's and other-domicile
narrow-body crews. Some
of these lines would be precluded by some of the suggested
"Configuration" settings above.
Rumor:
Currently, a qual Pursers bidding "RLF" may be forced into an unbid,
but unfilled relief Purser position line, just as s/he can be
assigned an unbid regular Purser line at the end of the bid award
process.
Problem: all relief positions are open anyway, and a
Purser could be forced out of a relief bid award, into this open
relief Purser line, only to be bumped after all in
briefing.
Consequence:
AFA is looking at either guaranteeing relief Purser pay, closing the
relief Purser position, or not allowing Pursers to be forced into
these positions like we can be forced into
regular Purser positions, all of which
effect Purser bidding methods using BidPlus. |