Originally Posted by
J Dawg
3-5 weeks, every 2nd or 3rd month???
Considering the bids consist of primary, secondary, and tertiary bids, wouldn't that leave 3 opportunities for conflict bidding per year, even for the most senior bidders? Hardly knocking out 3-5 weeks every 2 months for a junior person.
Myself? Well, I'm on my fifth year, and next bid period - in which I have one week of vacation - all I can hold is week on week off reserve in ANC. As for my week of vacation, I couldn't even get it to fall on one of those weeks of reserve. It only conflicted with one day of reserve. Whoopie!!! Hardly knocking out 3-5 weeks every 2-3 months.
Every 2nd month is not accurate, I take that back. Every 3rd month is, however. I'm a below-50%-ile seniority captain and I routinely turn one week of vacation into four. Here's a tip so that you can do it as well:
OOOOOOOWWWWWWWOOOOOOO | OOOOOOO (next bid period's first week)
[where O = a day off, and W = a work day]
Bid reserve or an international trip. Bid your vacation earlier so that it's the second to the last week of the bid period. Now bid a block of RSV days that has you working that second to last week. Bam, that gives you three weeks off using one week of vacation.
Now, bid the first week off of the subsequent bid period. Not hard to do unless you're in the bottom 10% or so in your domicile.
That's an easy way to turn one week of vacation into four weeks off.