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Bid Advisor

Chapter 2, operationally

How PBS actually reads a bid

The scheduler is precise, indifferent, and highly responsive to inputs — not intent. These are the rules Bid Advisor encodes when it writes your groups.

Processing path

  1. 01

    Normal

    Honors every Set Condition and every Prefer Off / Avoid. Then Awards run top to bottom until credit crosses Threshold. PBS does not read the bid as a whole.

  2. 02

    Award Pairings

    System filler from whatever is still in your pool. It will not restore trips your Avoids removed. If Min Value is still missed, Shuffle starts.

  3. 03

    Shuffle

    Reprioritizes Awards below the last negative so Min Credit can still be hit. Negatives stay honored. The only time a lower Award can beat a higher one.

  4. 04

    Denial

    Strips negatives to enlarge the pool, then re-applies as many as will still complete. Prefer Off peels right-to-left. Else Start Next can eject you to the next group here.

  5. 05

    SLG

    Ignores the bid and builds any legal line. If that fails, you are on reserve. A following Reserve Bid Group is then considered automatically for pilots who cannot hold a line.

Order inside a group

Set Conditions, then Prefer Off / Avoid (orange), then Award (green). If Awards sit above Avoids and the line completes, the Avoids are never read.

Layer specific → generic

PBS stops awarding at Threshold. The unicorn has to be asked for first, then the same ask with one constraint dropped, then the naked ask.

Else Start Next vs CSSN

ESN hangs on one negative or Set Condition and fires in Denial. CSSN sits at the bottom of the whole group and skips Award Pairings / Shuffle / Denial / SLG if the group cannot hold as written. Both need a following group.

Junior vs senior

Junior: keep the pool huge. Awards, not Avoids. Multiple pairing groups, then reserve. Senior: be specific. Generic awards are how a junior “steals” the trip you never asked for — that is not a seniority violation.

Days off have no Max button

Minimum Credit Window plus high-credit pairing Awards. A min window filled with skinny turns is more work, not more rest.

Reserve is concurrent

A reserve group under a line bid cannot hurt you. NavBlue still tries to build a line first if seniority can hold one. Days off first, RAP after, and only for day one of the block.

Default bid

Generic, no calendar dates, pairing plus reserve. Submit. Screenshot the confirmation number. Status change, upgrade, base change, and TDY wipe it.

Reasons Report

Honored, Not honored, Partially honored, Awarded to senior bidder, Item overlaps, No pairings available, Affected by Denial Mode, Affected by SLG. Read it every month.

Terms live in the glossary. When you are ready, build a bid.