Originally Posted by
Flamer
Line bidding. So one week of vacation can knock out two trips and pay a lot more than 42 hours. SWA has same thing and they use a program called swaptimizer to maximize their value for a week of vacation. So, if you thought our vacation sucked based on others having 6 hours, you should see what it is actually valued at if you bid your line and vacation properly. It is eye watering. Our vacation is a joke.
I'm not so sure that this is how it works, at either FedEx or SWA. (Someone from each of those carriers please jump in here.) Recall that Delta went from the trips-touching vacation system that you describe to the vacation bank system in 1996, long before the advent of PBS. Yes, we were paid for any trip that touched a vacation, but only to the extent of our vacation bank balance. When it hit zero, so did pay for any remaining vacation days that year. Conversely, if we bid to drop no trips due to vacation, we received a vacation payout on April 15.
I'm pretty sure that this is how it works at FedEx, but I'm not so sure about SWA.