A bid line, four time zones, and a family who just want to know
A bid line is a month of work described in a format designed for crew scheduling. It contains trips rather than days, spans time zones, and changes when you swap or get reassigned. Everyone at home is trying to answer one question — are you here on the fourteenth — from a document that never quite says.
The schedules this actually has to cope with
Freeish is built around these, not around a nine-to-five with the occasional exception.
Trips, not shifts
A three-day trip is one unit of work covering three calendar days, several flights and a hotel. Days at home are what is left over.
Reserve
On call, at home or near the airport, and possibly not flying at all. Free-looking and not free.
Layovers across time zones
You land at 23:00 somewhere and it is 06:00 at home. Any calendar showing only one of those is misleading somebody.
Swaps and reassignment
The bid line you were awarded is not the month you will fly. It moves.
What it sounds like at home
- “My family reads my bid line wrong every single month.”
- “Reserve looks like a day off until I get called.”
- “People call me at three in the morning wherever I am.”
- “I get reassigned and nobody at home finds out until I do not land.”
- “Working out whether I am home for a birthday takes ten minutes of arithmetic.”
Where Freeish fits
Everyone sees your schedule in their own time zone, which is the single biggest source of confusion gone.
Reserve days go in as reserve — visible as unavailable rather than looking free.
Import the line from a screenshot instead of transcribing a month of trips.
Days actually at home are obvious, which is the only thing most of your family want.
One week, start to finish
Renata, narrow-body
- The month’s line is awarded and Renata screenshots it.
- The trips import as blocks, so the days at home are what is left.
- Her partner sees a four-day gap mid-month and books something.
- Reserve days show as unavailable rather than free.
- She gets reassigned on the twelfth and changes one block.
Questions flight attendants ask
Does it handle time zones properly?
How do I show reserve?
Can I import my bid line?
Stop being the schedule. Start sharing it.
Now on iPhone — Android coming soon. Free to start. Import a photo of your next schedule and see who stops asking.