“Oh no I didn’t put in my bids and now I’m probably going to get the worst roster!”
Many passengers have probably heard the word ‘bidding’ being thrown around when eavesdropping on flight attendants chatting in the back galley. Such snippets of bidding banter include:
“What did you bid for?”
“Have you done your bids yet?
“I bid for day trips, and Tuesdays off.” – and so on.
Bidding is extremely important as a flight attendant, but what exactly is it? Basically bidding is a way to have some control over your roster. Don’t like overnights and just want to do turnarounds? Bid for single day trips. Hate staying in Hong Kong but love going to Abu Dhabi? Bid for AUH on your roster as your preferred port. Are you inexplicably one of the flight attendants who loves doing reserve? Then you’ll be bidding for reserve blocks on your roster, or an entire roster of reserve.
All crew have different ideas about what makes their ‘ideal’ schedule, and bidding lets the crew scheduling system (a computer program) know what is important to them. It will then try to allocate duties around those requests, while still fulfilling certain parameters to build a roster, such as number of hours required, mandatory days off, company seniority and duty hour limitations.
Depending on the airline that you work for, and the kind of bidding flexibility that you have under your contract, there are many different types of bids, and many different things that influence whether or not you get the kind of trips or roster that you request. Roster release day is so suspenseful for crew, as it can be pleasant or unpleasant depending on what you’ve been allocated. That’s why bidding is so important to have some semblance on control over this.
Why Can Bidding Be So Complicated?
For some crew, bidding can be fairly straightforward, with a limited amount of options available, such as bids for days off, or certain trip types. For other flight attendants, though, bidding is an extremely detailed endeavour, and involves sitting down at a computer and combing through the trip schedules of the next few months and allocating points or priorities to which flights you want. Airlines have large workforces and a huge number of flights each day so logistically it’s a massive undertaking assigning crews to each flight.
Because of the complexity, its important to make sure you ask for trip that you want in priority order because if it can’t fulfil first preferences, the system will aim to meet next preference. You’ll be assigned something randomly if you don’t put in enough ‘back up bids’ and it can’t grant you your first request. Without going into too much detail, it can be quite easy to enter invalid bids, because trips you’ve requested overlap for example, or you’ve requested a trip you aren’t able to do, for a wide number of reasons.
Sometimes it’s better to keep your bids simple. If you really love going to Tokyo for example, and that’s your most important thing for you on you roster, enter that as top priority, and you’ll be sure to get at least some Tokyo flights. This obviously depends on the airline schedules and how many crews they need for Tokyo flights versus other destinations. When crew ask for too much, or not enough, or bid for things that they aren’t likely to get due to seniority, it can dilute the importance of their bids, and ‘confuse’ the bidding system with mixed messages of what they are really asking for.
Cover all bases, sure, but don’t get too picky or specific with what you want, and be realistic. Confusing? You betcha. Everyone has a strategy that works for them in order to get a roster they are at least half happy with. If you talk to crew they will tell you how they bid, and chances are it’s different to you.
What Parameters Does Bidding Account For?
There are constraints however when it comes to bidding. If you’re a junior flight attendant, your bids are usually processed after those with more seniority. That means you may get the ‘left over’ trips. Therefore bidding for the popular layover ports might be fruitless, so you’d be better off bidding to work on certain days if you’d like to be home on weekends for example.
Bidding also needs to account for full time or part time schedules, and create a roster that reflects the number of hours needed for these trips. To ‘fill up’ a roster with hours, it might be necessary to assign a trip that you didn’t ask for, to make up your hours. Some flight attendants ask for trip with high density of hours, which allows more days off. After some longer trips, crews must have at least three days off after completion of the duty.
Bidding Doesn’t Guarantee You’ll Get What You Ask For
If you’re the most ‘senior Sally’ at your airline, you’ll pretty much be able to build your roster how you like, but for everyone else, chances are you won’t get everything you ask for, as often other crew want similar trips, or days off. The best advice I’ve been given is to cover all bases with your bidding, put in several back up bids, and be realistic with your requests. That way you should at least get some of your bids.
What Can Crew Bid For?
Apart from certain flights or routes, crew may be able to bid for a number of things such as:
- Reserve periods. Either a full roster or a block of reserve days.
- Days off, single or multi consecutive days off
- To fly with a fellow crew member (buddy bidding)
- Trip length. e.g single day trip (home that night) or multi day trips.
- Time of departure. I.e. early morning sign ons, or late afternoon/evening sign on.
- Aircraft type. If crew are endorsed to fly on a number of different aircraft i.e. Boeing 777 and Airbus a380, they can bid for trips on certain aircraft types as a priority.
- Other options depending on the airline and contract.
Ultimately, bidding is a luxury and something that we as flighties tend to take for granted. It allows us some flexibility with our lives and tries to match as many of the requests as possible based on the set parameters.
That said, you can’t satisfy everyone, every time. At least in my experience there’s still a certain amount of randomness in each roster, no matter what you bid for. The good news is, get a crappy roster this month, and next month is a clean slate! A mantra I often hear repeated: There’s always next roster!
“I didn’t get any of my bids again!
“Oh there’s always next roster. I just ask for the days off I want and get thrown a roster. I don’t care where I go, I just want most weekends off.”
