Bidding
Requesting the trips, days off or patterns you want for the coming month, with awards decided by seniority or a points system.
Definition
Bidding is the process of submitting preferences for next month's roster — specific trips, layover cities, days off, early or late starts — before the roster is built. In a preferential bidding system (PBS) each crew member's requests are honoured in seniority order until the flying is covered; in a bidline system crew bid for pre-built whole lines of flying instead. Airlines without seniority bidding offer a lighter request system that the software tries to honour.
What it means for you
At US carriers bidding is everything: your seniority number decides whether you get the Tokyo layover or the four-day Midwest pairing, and learning the PBS well is worth real money in premium trips. At Emirates or Qatar there is no formal seniority bid, so a junior and a fifteen-year veteran fly similar mixes, and swaps rather than bids are how you shape a month. Either way, unrealistic bids cost you: the system falls back to whatever is left.
In practice
A United flight attendant with fifteen years' seniority bids and holds a monthly line of Asia-Pacific long-haul trips with 48–72-hour layovers; a two-year colleague at the same base bids the same and is awarded reserve.
Related terms
4 terms- SeniorityRoster & schedulingYour rank on the airline's crew list by date of hire, which at many carriers decides bidding, base, vacation and reserve.
- RosterRoster & schedulingYour published block of duties for the month: flights, standbys, training, days off and leave, built against legal duty limits.
- Line holderRoster & schedulingUS crew who hold a monthly roster of assigned trips rather than reserve days, and can trade, drop and pick up flying.
- PairingRoster & schedulingA US term for a complete trip built from consecutive duties and layovers that begins and ends at your base, bid and paid as a unit.