PBS Pilot Guide

Explain like I'm 6: what PBS is, why airlines use it, and how to use American Virtual’s PBS.

What is PBS?

Preferential Bidding System (PBS) is a fair way to build your schedule. You tell PBS what you like (your preferences), and PBS builds a personal plan (your line) that tries to match those likes while keeping operations realistic.

Think of it like ordering a pizza: you choose toppings; the kitchen makes you a pizza that fits your choices and the kitchen’s rules.

Why Airlines Use PBS

Gives pilots a voice in the schedule (trip length, overnights, aircraft).
Keeps the operation balanced (right airplanes, rest, connections).
Treats everyone fairly using seniority and the same rules for all.

Key Words (Plain English)

Period: The chunk of time we schedule at once (typically 12 days).
Line: Your personal plan for the period (flying days + off/layover days).
Leg: A single flight (Airport A → Airport B).
Layover: A day you don’t fly; you stay in the city you last landed.
Base: Your hub (e.g., JFK, DFW).
Deadhead/Jumpseat: A positioning ride to reach where your next flying starts.
Seniority: Your place in line for fairness (based on a hire-date snapshot each period).
Preferences: Your “wish list” PBS uses to build your line.
Trip: A ready-made route chain flown over several days that you can bid on as a whole.
Duty day: One day of flying inside a trip. Each duty day lands on one of your On-Duty days.
Open Flight: An unbid AAL flight you can reserve for extra flying. The most senior pilot who reserves it wins it. See Open Flights.

How AVA’s PBS Works (Big Picture)

Each period opens for bidding; you set your preferences; then we publish lines.
You can also bid on Trips: ready-made multi-day itineraries. Trips are awarded first, then PBS builds the rest of your line around them.
PBS uses your rank/type-ratings, your preferences, and realistic rules to build your line.
Typical balance: roughly 2 ON days / 1 OFF day, with up to 2 short legs per ON day.
Very long flights (about 8+ hours) are followed by extra rest.
Impossible pairings (e.g., ultra-long routes on a narrowbody) are filtered out.

All times are UTC: The PBS calendar, adherence checks, and flight timing use UTC. Plan your flying days in UTC to ensure full credit.

Optional, not exclusive: Using PBS is not all-or-nothing. You can still bid and fly the standard way any time. Participating in PBS does not block normal schedule bidding.

Your Bidding Preferences

1) Bases and Airports

Primary Base: Your main hub to anchor flying.
Secondary Base: Backup hub if the primary can’t be matched.
Avoided Airports: Places you prefer not to visit.

2) Select On-Duty Days

Click dates to mark them ON (the blue buttons). Unselected dates are OFF (layovers). The calendar uses UTC, so select days based on UTC.

Blue = On-Duty (flying); Light = Off (layover)
Minimum: select at least 4 On-Duty days in each 12-day period

3) Trip Preferences

Preferred Trip Length: Any, 1 day, 2–3 days, or 4+ days.
Daily Flights: Any, 1, or 2 (two only when each leg is short).
Layover Preference: Any, Short (<2h), Medium (2–8h), Long (>8h), or Overnight.

4) Equipment Priority (Subfleets)

Pick up to two aircraft categories you prefer (e.g., Airbus Narrow, Boeing Narrow, Widebody, Regional). PBS keeps you inside your allowed subfleets.

If you bid on a Trip, your categories matter even more: every flight in the trip must be flyable on one of them. See Trips below.

Trips (Ready-Made Itineraries)

A Trip is a route chain someone has already planned for you, flown over several days. For example: Boston → London → Miami → Rome → Philadelphia → Zurich → Philadelphia. Instead of PBS building those days one flight at a time, you bid on the whole journey.

Think of it like choosing a tour package instead of booking every hotel yourself: the route is fixed, but you still decide which days you travel.

How a Trip fits into your line

A trip is made of duty days, not fixed dates. Duty day 1 flies on your first On-Duty day, duty day 2 on your second, and so on. The same trip can look different for two pilots:

Trip duty day	Pilot A picked days 1–8	Pilot B picked days 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11
Duty day 1 · Boston → London	Day 1	Day 1
Duty day 2 · London → Miami	Day 2	Day 3
Duty day 3 · Miami → Rome	Day 3	Day 5
Duty day 4 · Rome → Philadelphia	Day 4	Day 7
Duty day 5 · Philadelphia → Zurich	Day 5	Day 9
Duty day 6 · Zurich → Philadelphia	Day 6	Day 11
After the trip	Days 7–8: normal PBS flying	No days left

Pilot A flies the trip back-to-back; Pilot B gets rest days between the very same flights. Your On-Duty days set the pace.
The trip always uses your first On-Duty days. Any On-Duty days left over get normal PBS flying, starting from wherever the trip ended.
A trip can finish away from where it started, so you may end the trip in a different city.
Some duty days have two short flights. The trip card tells you how many flights per day to expect.

How to bid on a Trip

Go to PBS → Bid Preferences and scroll to the Trip Bidding panel below your normal preferences.
Each card shows the route, the number of duty days and flights (including flights per day), the aircraft, and how many slots it has.
Add up to 5 trips and put them in order. #1 is your first choice.
Click Save Trip Bids. This is separate from Save Preferences, so save both.

Who gets which Trip

Each trip has a limited number of slots per period.
After bidding closes, trips are awarded by seniority: the most senior pilot goes first and gets their highest choice that still has a slot, then the next pilot, and so on.
You can hold one trip per period.
Trips are awarded before lines are built, so your awarded trip is already in place when your line is published.

What can stop you getting a Trip

A trip is only awarded if it fits the preferences you saved. PBS checks this for you:

Not enough On-Duty days. A 6-duty-day trip needs at least 6 On-Duty days.
Flights per day. If you set Daily Flights to 1, you won't be given a trip with two-flight days.
Aircraft. Every flight in the trip must be flyable on an aircraft category you selected. You can pick only two categories, so if you bid a long-haul trip flown on widebodies, one of your two must be the widebody.
Rank. Some trips need a minimum rank. You'll only see trips your rank allows.
No slots left. More senior pilots took them first.

Check for yellow warnings: save your preferences first, then look at your trip cards. A yellow line on a card means that trip can't be awarded with your saved preferences, and tells you why. Fix it and save again before bidding closes.

The Trip bonus

Complete every flight in your trip and you earn +2 flight hours and +1,000 AAdvantage Miles, on top of your normal PBS rewards.

It's all or nothing: an unfinished trip earns no bonus.
The bonus is paid when the period is finalized, together with your other PBS rewards.

Bid with care

Your bid is the line you're signing up to fly. A trip, plus many On-Duty days, plus Daily Flights set to Any adds up to a heavy line: the trip takes your first On-Duty days, every remaining On-Duty day gets flying, and "Any" allows up to two flights on those days. If that's what you want, great. Just choose it on purpose, because flights you don't fly lower your score and your rewards.

Following your Trip

Flight Line: a banner at the top shows your awarded trip and how many of its flights you've completed. Trip flights are marked with a route icon.
Trip History (PBS menu): every trip you've been awarded, with its dates, progress, status (in progress, completed, or forfeited) and any bonus earned.

Open Flights (Extra Flying, First Come by Seniority)

Open Flights is a board of AAL flights that nobody has bid on yet. It sits outside your line: you can pick one up any time you want some extra flying, whether you have a PBS line or not.

Think of it like a sign-up sheet on the crew room wall: you put your name down, and after a short wait the most senior pilot on the sheet gets the flight.

How it works, step by step

Find a flight. Go to PBS → Open Flights. You can filter by aircraft, departure and arrival airport. Flights your rank or type ratings don't allow are shown as Not Eligible.
Reserve it. Click Reserve. This opens a 30-minute reservation window on that flight. Other pilots can reserve the same flight during those 30 minutes. You don't need to be at the departure airport to reserve.
Wait for the seniority check. When the 30 minutes are up, the flight goes to the most senior pilot who reserved it (the same seniority snapshot PBS uses). If two pilots have the same seniority, the one who reserved first wins.
Place the final BID. Come back to Open Flights. If you won, the card shows Bid Available. You must be at the departure airport to place the bid. If you aren't there yet, use the Jumpseat first.
Fly it. Fly the flight and file your PIREP as normal.

Do I have to depart at the time shown?

No. The departure and arrival times on the card are the airline's published schedule, just for reference. You can start the flight whenever you like.

There is one deadline that matters: you have 24 hours from the moment the flight is awarded to you. Within those 24 hours, place the bid, fly the flight and file the PIREP. After 24 hours the award expires, your bid is removed and the flight goes back on the board.

The rules

You can hold one Open Flights reservation (or award) at a time.
Only AAL flights with no bids on them appear on the board.
Changed your mind? Click Remove Reservation on the card. This works while the window is still open, and also after you've been awarded the flight (until you place the bid).
Lost the seniority check? The card shows You Lost Seniority, and you're free to reserve another flight.

The reward

Each card shows its AAdvantage Miles reward (about 1 mile per nautical mile flown). The miles are paid when your PIREP is accepted.
Open Flights are extra flying: they don't count for or against your PBS line or adherence score.

Card statuses at a glance: Available (nobody has reserved it), Competition Active (a window is open; reserve to join), Reserved by You (wait for the timer), Bid Available (you won: go bid and fly), Awarded (another pilot got it).

Periods: Open → Submit → Publish → Fly

Open: Set or update your preferences and trip bids.
Close: Bidding locks for this period.
Trips awarded: Trips are handed out by seniority.
Publish: Lines are generated (built around any awarded trips) and released.
Fly: Use your Flight Line and Schedule views to fly your plan.

Your Flight Line and Schedule

Flight Line lists your days (1–12), legs, aircraft, and statuses: Pending, In Progress, Flown (after PIREP approval). Deadheads show a Jumpseat option.

Schedule View shows a calendar with your flights. OFF days display as Layovers in the last city you landed.

Flying and Status

Best credit when you fly the leg on its assigned day.
Small tolerance windows allow for slight adjustments if needed.

The PBS Challenge: Adherence, Rewards, Seniority

Adherence Rewards AAdvantage Miles Seniority

Each period you can join the PBS Challenge. Fly your line as planned, and your adherence earns you extra flight hours and bonus AAdvantage Miles. Seniority (your hire-date snapshot for the period) helps break ties and may scale rewards.

Adherence (how you’re scored)

Full credit = 1.0: Fly and file the leg on the assigned calendar day.
Partial credit = 0.75: You’re within a small window (about ±1 day) of the assigned day.
No credit = 0.0: Outside the window.
Long flight exception: If a long flight starts on the planned day, it still earns full credit even if it lands the next day (as long as you file shortly after landing).

Tip: File the PIREP on the same calendar day the leg is planned to get 1.0 credit. You’ll see per‑leg credit and your period total in PBS → Flight Line and PBS → History.

Rewards

Extra Flight Hours: A small bonus added to your logbook based on your final adherence percent.
Bonus AAdvantage Miles: Awarded from the monthly pool; higher adherence and seniority can earn more.
Published recap: After each period, we publish results and grant rewards. Check your profile and the recap.

Seniority snapshot (fairness)

We take a “hire‑date snapshot” for each period. Senior pilots get first pick when the generator has to choose between overlapping preferences. Your Challenge rewards can scale with this snapshot.

Optional, not exclusive

You can take the Challenge and still bid and fly the standard way at any time. PBS never blocks the normal schedule‑bidding workflow.

Layovers and Trip Lengths

Layover = a rest day in your last city. You do not fly on a layover day.
Duration types: Short <2h, Medium 2–8h, Long >8h, and Overnight (past midnight).
Two‑leg days: Only when each leg is short enough; otherwise you’ll get one leg and more rest.

Quick start checklist

PBS → Preferences: Pick Bases, Avoided Airports, On‑Duty days, Trip & Layover preferences, Equipment (up to 2). Click Save Preferences.
Optional: in the Trip Bidding panel, rank up to 5 trips and click Save Trip Bids. Make sure none of your trips show a yellow warning.
After publish: Check PBS → Flight Line and PBS → Schedule for your assigned line.
Fly on the assigned days and file the PIREP the same day for full (1.0) credit.
Watch your adherence and the Challenge recap; claim your extra hours and miles.
Awarded a trip? Follow it on your Flight Line and in PBS → Trip History, and fly every leg to earn the trip bonus.
Want extra flying? PBS → Open Flights: reserve a flight, wait 30 minutes, and if you win, bid and fly it within 24 hours. The departure time shown is only a guide.