Bidding is the seniority-based process that flight crews use to select their monthly schedule. Crew Planning Analysts review the bids, work with the crews to optimize their schedules based on operational needs, and then the bid is awarded. When the monthly schedule begins, Crew Scheduling takes over and works with the crews to mitigate delays and find solutions to changes in the schedule.
To explain the entire process, we asked Colin McDevitt, who was recently promoted from Crew Scheduler to Crew Planning.