How to Read Your Bid Packet to Estimate Trip Pay
Written by a working flight attendant, creator of CrewPay
Find the credit, TAFB, and leg count in a typical crew bid packet and turn them into a quick trip pay estimate.
Why the bid packet matters
Every month crew members choose trips from a bid packet or pairing list. It holds almost everything you need to estimate what a trip will pay: the report and release times, the legs flown, the layover cities, and the total credit. Learning to pull three numbers out of a pairing quickly turns a confusing page into an easy comparison.
Number one: total credit
Look for a line labeled credit, pay, or total, usually at the bottom of each pairing. This is the number of paid hours, including any rigs and guarantees the scheduling system has applied. Enter it in the Total Hourly box for that trip.
Number two: TAFB
Many packets print TAFB directly. If yours does not, subtract the first report time from the final release time. Remember to count across days: a trip that reports Monday at 07:00 and releases Wednesday at 19:30 has 60.5 hours of TAFB. Enter that in the Total Per Diem box.
Number three: boardings
If your airline pays flight attendants for boarding, count the number of legs on which you will board passengers. That is usually every operating leg, but not deadhead legs. Enter the count in the Total Boardings box. If your company does not pay boarding, simply leave the boarding rate at zero.
Putting the numbers together
With your three rates set once at the top of the calculator, each trip card turns those three numbers into an Estimated Trip Pay. Enter one pairing to price it on its own, or enter two or three to compare them side by side. Give each card a name and a date so you can tell them apart, for example the pairing number and the first day of the trip.
A worked example: with rates of $30.32 per credit hour, $2.25 per TAFB hour, and $15.16 per boarding, a trip with 22 credit hours, 80 hours of TAFB, and 11 boardings comes to $667.04 + $180.00 + $166.76, or $1,013.80.
Things the packet will not tell you
Premiums for language qualification, positions such as lead or purser, holiday pay, international overrides, and reserve guarantees are rarely shown in a pairing. Add them to your rates if they apply, or keep them in mind when comparing results. Delays and reroutes will also change the actual numbers after the trip flies.
Use the estimate to make better choices quickly, then confirm the final pay with your contract and your pay statement.
Try it yourself
Open the CrewPay Trip Calculator to price a trip or compare up to three. Read the disclaimer for how estimates work.