What That Stuff Means In Your Reasons Report

Your AFA JPBSC members spend many, many hours each month reading through Reasons Reports in order to investigate bid protests and system performance. We hear frequently from members who are confused by some of the terms found in their Reasons Reports, and we understand just how frustrating it can be to read them.

Here’s what those phrases in your Reasons Report really mean:

Awarded by previous bids: X X number of pairings matched this bid preference, and were already awarded by a previous bid

Awarded to senior bidder: pairings matching this bid preference were already awarded to a bidder with higher seniority than you

Awarded to senior bidder: pairings matching this bid preference were already awarded to a bidder with higher seniority than you

Best Line Before: the PBS Logic attempted to build a pairing block, but it could not be built using your bid preferences and the criteria set by the Administrators, so the PBS Logic moved to your next bid group, the results of this attempt are listed in your Reasons report

Best Line Before Empty:  No Pairing Awards Possible  the best line before is empty, the PBS Logic could not build a block with the pairings left in the available pairing pool

Best Line Before Empty:  Available Pairing Credit Insufficient (Line Not Attempted):  the previous pairing completion attempt produced an empty best line before because there was insufficient available pairing credit to build a line so it was not attempted

Best Line Before Empty: Block Time Limit Insufficient (Line Not Attempted):  the previous pairing completion attempt produced an empty best line before because the PBS Logic calculated that a crewmember’s Block Time Limit makes it unrealistic to complete a block

Beyond bid limit: X X number of additional pairings matched this bid preference, but none were awarded because you placed a limit on the bid preference

Bid denied: this bid preference was denied, and there are pairings on your block that contradict this preference

Block is complete: this bid preference was not used to build your pairings because your pairings block was already complete before reaching this point

If a number appears after the ”Block is complete” reason, it indicates the number of pairings that matched the bid but were not awarded because your block was already complete. That is, it reached the minimum or threshold credit value.

Buddy cannot take pairing: your buddy could not be awarded this pairing, so it can’t be awarded to you either

Combination not found: no pairings matching this bid preference were found, within the parameters set for this bid period

Filtered by line X X: number of pairings matched this bid preference, but were filtered out of the available pairings pool by Avoid Pairings or Prefer Off bid preferences that were higher in your bid

Honored: this bid preference was used, and there are no pairings on your block that contradict this preference

Item overlaps with another: X X number of pairings matched this bid preference, but overlapped with something already awarded

Matching: X the total number of pairings that match this bid preference

Not considered: this bid preference was denied, but there are no pairings on your block that contradict this preference

Not honored: this bid preference was denied, and there are pairings on your block that contradict this preference

Not used: this bid preference was not used to build your block; either because your block was already complete or because you used a Clear Schedule and Restart bid preference

No pairings available: no pairings that met your Avoid Pairings and TimePrefer Off bid preferences were available to be awarded, usually because too many pairings were eliminated from the pairings pool by your Avoid Pairings and TimePrefer Off bid preferences

Partially honored: this TimePrefer Off bid preference was used, but there are also pairings on your block that contradict a portion of this preference. If you submit a range of dates that you want to be free of duty, the PBS Logic may be able to honor part of the range but not all of it, resulting in a partially honored bid preference.

Pulled during shuffle: a pairing that matched a higher bid preference than some of your awarded pairings and appeared to fit on your block was pulled because a complete block couldn’t be built using the pairing

[Rule violation]: an FAR rule, or other legal consideration, prevented this bid preference from being honored The rule is identified in the reason included on your report.

Over maximum credits for period: the pairing would have caused your block to exceed the maximum credit value for the bid period

Tried and Pulled During Shuffle: the PBS Logic attempted to award the pairing during shuffling but could build a complete a block with the pairing

Additional Messages

You may see the following messages at the top of your Reasons report. These messages indicate that the PBS Logic had to ignore some of your preferences in order to give you a complete block or meet legal requirements or planning targets.

Affected By Denial Mode the PBS Logic had to deny some or all of your bids in order to build you a complete block

Affected by SLG the PBS Logic could not build you a block using any of your preferences and reached the end of Denial mode, so your block was built using secondary line generation (SLG)

Affected By Coverage a pairing or pairings were forced onto your block in order to meet airline targets for total number of pairings remaining in open time

We are always happy to answer your questions and provide clarification - just let us know!

John Grace (jgrace@afaeagle.com) and Marti Carnes (mcarnes@afaeagle.com)