Originally Posted by
Adlerdriver
Ugh. It sounds like they could build a secondary with a full month's flying in the first half of the month if they wanted. So, if all you can hold is reserve or a VTO, your best option is reserve with max days under the training footprint (if you want to maximize time off before training).
I'll try a quick synopsis and simplified examples of the entering ITU month, but the article is correct while I may miss something.
There is no min days off protection for the month entering ITU. I'll assume your ITU starts the last 7 days of a 4-week bid month. You need to know two things: reserve credit hour value (I'll assume 4:50) and average BLG (I'll assume 72 CH).
1) Bid a normal line where all trips are outside the ITU footprint with 12 hours buffer prior to ITU. You work like a dog that month. You work all your trips and start your ITU with only your BLG for pay.
2) you get a single departure line of 14 days that touches ITU footprint by 2 days. The trip is dropped and you get a custom line. You had 2 days of conflict times 4:50 for 9 CH credit. You get a 12 CH training credit per CBA. You now have 72-12-9=51 hours to do in a custom line and you get a 48 hour buffer before starting ITU. Your pay for the month is BLG.
3) You have a line that works week 1 and 4 that works 12 days--6 each week on. You will work week 1 unchanged. Your second week (on week 4) has all 6 days (assume they are AM out and backs so also 6 calendar days of conflict) of 36 CH under the ITU footprint. The six days dropped have a value of 6 x 4:50=29 hours credit. You get 12 CH of credit for having a training conflict, so you have 41 total hours of credit. You owe no additional days of work under a custom line. Your pay for the month is BLG.
4) You bid a line that are mostly 6 CH trips except the last trip of the month. The last trip of the month falls under the ITU footprint and is a 30 CH trip that covers 3 calendar days. The 3 calendar days conflict x 4:50 = 14:30 CH "conflict". What do you owe? You begin with 72 hours, minus working 42 hours at the beginning of the month, minus the 14:30 conflict, minus 12 hours training credit = 3:30 owed on a custom line which has no trip that has that few credit hours, so you're free.
5) You bid a reserve line that works all days in the first 3 weeks. You work like a dog, need only 12 hours off before ITU, and get paid only RLG.
6) you bid a secondary line. Your ITU footprint is 7 days x 4:50 credit per day = 33:50. Owe 72 - 33:50 = 38:10 CH of custom line work with a 48 hour buffer before beginning ITU. Your pay is BLG.
Bidding the month starting ITU is very complex. Want max days off? A reserve line with maximum days under the ITU footprint may be for you rather than a secondary or normal line. Whenever there is a conflict you get a 12 hour training credit which can help things out. When you get a custom line due to owing additional work, you always get a 48 hour buffer. Remember that the min time from last reserve day or trip to ITU is only 12 hours if you don't bid correctly.
Bidding in months where ITU begins should almost always be done by line number and almost never by "any normal line" type if code or "bad" things may happen.
Hopefully I haven't gooned up anything too badly. Look at this instead: http://fdx.alpa.org/Portals/26/docs/010814%20Schoolhouse%20Cash%20Final.pdf