Originally Posted by BlueJetDork

We bid periods not hours. UAL, SWA, DAL etc bid periods.

A seniorish committing pilot with UAL's allocation, for instance, would have 5 or 6 periods of vacation. We have 3 until 20 years. That means instead of having a vacation essentially every other month it is one every quarter.

From zero to 10 years each pilot gets one pass in the “round” bidding system. One!!!

The credit hour comparison was just a used car salesman pitch. It also falls apart in year two, three and four. This is because as we gain longevity we don't gain an allocated week as fast as our peer. Plus the group lost almost 2000 peak slots (which is what we bid on) to a market rate allocation step table in year one alone of this charade. This is important because at 24 or 35 credit hours unless a slot is allocated it doesn't matter what it credits. You did not get one. 900 pilots lost two each in the peak periods which is when most want a vacation.

If we could bid hours then cool, 105 hours would be awesome. I'll take 20 here and 10 there and 5 over here and 30 there and 40 may be over here. But we bid periods and we have the lowest amount of periods per longevity step in the business.