Pairing
A 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.
Definition
A pairing is a sequence of flight duty periods and layovers that starts at your base and returns to it, typically one to four days long, constructed by crew-planning software and then bid for or assigned as a single unit. Each pairing has an identifier, a credit value in pay hours, a report time and a release time. American crew say pairing, sequence or trip; European airlines say trip or rotation for the same idea.
What it means for you
At bidding airlines you build your month out of pairings, and their design is what you are really choosing: a three-day pairing with two long layovers and high credit is worth more, in pay and in sleep, than a four-day one with four legs a day. Pairing credit is also what your monthly guarantee is measured against, so learning to read a pairing's credit, block and duty numbers is the first skill of a line holder.
In practice
A United flight attendant bids a four-day pairing that credits 24 hours for two transatlantic sectors and a 48-hour London layover, while a reserve colleague is assigned a three-day domestic pairing that credits 15 for eight sectors.
Related terms
4 terms- BiddingRoster & schedulingRequesting the trips, days off or patterns you want for the coming month, with awards decided by seniority or a points system.
- Line holderRoster & schedulingUS crew who hold a monthly roster of assigned trips rather than reserve days, and can trade, drop and pick up flying.
- RotationFlight operationsA complete trip that starts and ends at your base — one or more sectors, with any layovers in between.
- LayoverRoster & schedulingThe rest period spent away from base between two duties, in a crew hotel, from a legal minimum overnight up to several days.