Preferential Bidding System - Bidding and Line

Bidding and Line

The process of requesting a certain schedule is called "bidding". Generally this is done on a monthly basis. The monthly schedule called "line" which a crew member gets will consist of a series of "pairings". Each month the airlines crew planning sets the new pairings due to new locations being added or removed, new times, or changes in aircraft. These new pairings are then made available for assignment or bidding. In the United States, crew members are often working under a union's collective bargaining agreement, and sometimes including non-union workplaces, seniority is used to give senior crew member the right to override junior crew member requests. A line itself must also satisfy legal and contractual constraints. Ideally it should also satisfy the crew members choices and preferences.