Originally Posted by NedsKid

Each week of 'vacation' is worth 28 hours. We start with two 1 week bids of vacation and 48 hours of credit in your vacation bank, then @ year 5 you get three 1 week bids (and 84 credit hours), @ year 10 you get 14 more hours of vacation (but can only bid for 3 week periods, so you get 3.5 weeks of equivalent credit to use as you wish - partial weeks, single days, etc), @ year 15 you get four 1 week bids, @ year 20 you get an additional 14 hours (see year 10), and year 25+ you get five 1 week bids (and 140 credit hours). Essentially, you can easily turn 1 week of vacation into 2 weeks free of work without any problems, b/c we don't have PBS. Touch a trip with vacation, its dropped entirely. The issue is how much pay you want to sacrifice for it. With only 28 hours, if you bid a schedule with 4 days of work, then 4 days off, then 4 days of work, then 4 off (pretty typical here), that 16 day sequence is worth 38 hours (two 4 day trips each worth 18 hours). So, yeah, you can get both of those 4 days dropped by touching them with your 7 days of vacation, no problem, and get 16 days off in a row, while using only 1 week of vacation. However, your line, which was crediting 80 hours, now is only worth 70, b/c you only had 28 hours of credit in your vacation bank, but dropped 38 hours of credit on your line. Most guys will like having 23 days off, flying 36 hours over 8 days, and getting paid 70 hours - call it good QOL. None the less, some will complain, and need more $ - so, you can work on your vacation too, if you want.

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