PBS Bidding Is Open: Bid Your Next Flight Line by November 1

Greetings AAVA Crews!

A new PBS period opened today, and the bidding window is now open. Every 12-day period gives our pilots the chance to bid for their next flight line the way real airline crews do, and to earn extra flight hours and AAdvantage Miles that help them climb the ranking ladder faster.

Bidding deadline: Sunday, November 1, 2026 at 23:59 UTC
Flight lines begin: Monday, November 2, 2026

Submit or update your preferences in the CrewCenter PBS before the window closes.

How PBS Works

The Preferential Bidding System is how real airlines build crew schedules. You tell PBS what you would like to fly, and it builds your personal line for the 12-day period around those preferences, using seniority and the same rules for everyone. Each period follows the same cycle: the window opens for preferences, bidding closes, Trips are awarded by seniority, lines are published, and then you fly.

Your preferences include:

• Bases and airports: a primary base, a secondary base, and any airports you would rather avoid.
• On-Duty days: the days you want to fly, with a minimum of four per period. The calendar runs on UTC.
• Trip preferences: preferred trip length, one or two flights per day, and layover length.
• Equipment: up to two aircraft categories, such as Airbus Narrow, Boeing Narrow, Widebody or Regional.

PBS is optional and never blocks the normal way of bidding and flying the schedule.

Trips: Bid on a Whole Journey

Trips are ready-made, multi-day itineraries you can bid on as a whole, such as the Caribbean Crown, Passport to Europe or Pacific Crossing. You can rank up to five Trips in the Trip Bidding panel; they are awarded by seniority before lines are built, and each pilot can hold one per period. Complete every flight in your Trip and you earn +2 flight hours and +1,000 AAdvantage Miles on top of your normal PBS rewards.

One tip from last period: a Trip can only be awarded if you have selected enough On-Duty days to cover all of its duty days. Remember to click both Save Preferences and Save Trip Bids, and check your Trip cards for yellow warnings before the deadline.

The PBS Challenge and Rewards

Fly your line as planned and your adherence score earns extra flight hours and bonus AAdvantage Miles. A leg flown and filed on its assigned day earns full credit, and a leg within about a day of it earns partial credit. Results and rewards are published at the end of each period.

Your place in line comes from the Seniority List, a hire-date snapshot taken each period. It decides who gets first pick when preferences overlap, and it is also used for Trip awards and Open Flights.

Open Flights: Extra Flying by Seniority

Want more flying outside your line? The Open Flights board lists AAL flights nobody has bid on. Reserve one to open a 30-minute window; when it closes, the most senior pilot who reserved it wins the flight and has 24 hours to bid, fly and file it from the departure airport. Each flight pays AAdvantage Miles when the PIREP is accepted, and it does not count for or against your PBS line.

Last Period’s Results

Congratulations to our four pilots who flew a perfect 100/100 Flight Line: Pablo V. (AAL2223), Mark R. (AAL2983), Daryl H. (AAL3972) and Jerry V. (AAL4380).

The Points column on the leaderboard includes each pilot’s seniority, so the clearest picture of how the period was actually flown is the rewards each pilot earned. The top earners of extra AAdvantage Miles and flight hours were:

• Pablo Vazquez: 6,000 miles and 12.00 hours
• Jerry Vaughn: 6,000 miles and 12.00 hours
• Brooks Barron: 5,900 miles and 11.80 hours
• Shea List: 5,800 miles and 11.60 hours
• Daniel Klarnet: 5,450 miles and 10.90 hours

In total, 18 pilots earned extra miles and hours this period.

Six pilots completed their Trips and earned the +2 hours and +1,000 miles bonus: William C. (AAL074), Pablo V. (AAL2223), Shea L. (AAL3951), Jerry V. (AAL4380), Daniel K. (AAL4396) and Brooks B. (AAL4517). In total, the Trips awarded 12 additional hours and 6,000 bonus miles, already included in the figures above. The full leaderboard is posted in the #pbs-system channel on our Discord.

Thank you to everyone who took part, and we would love to see some new names on the shoutout list this time. For a full walkthrough, read the PBS Pilot Guide in the CrewCenter Pilot Guides.

Blue skies and happy bidding!