Originally Posted by
AFW_MD11
Maybe it is because until recently, there were no open trips in your seat/aircraft to volunteer for?
and/or too fat on reserves to need to make AVA avaiable? (see previous paragraph - 25.N.4.a.? )
.... but I don't really know, just thinking out loud - aren't most every crew position except 777 covered by vacation buyback anyway (Nov & Dec)?
What happened was the system wouldn't let "non-vacation buyback" seats in. It said "AVA not available in your seat" which was wrong since the request was between Thanksgiving and New Years. "AVA not available in your seat" is a response you'd get in say February when there is no vacation buy back and it's not between Thanksgiving and Dec 31st.
For the people who had vacation buyback, the response was "Your AVA was denied for Sufficient Reserves". Why 2 different answers if both had the same AVA option? Once the oversight was brought to the companies attention, it was changed to let everybody in. It doesn't mean you'll get the trip if they have sufficient reserves, but it will at least let you try.
The contract said we all have AVA between Thanksgiving and Dec 31st and we didn't. And the Union was not helpful on this when it was brought to their attention.