Originally Posted by
O2pilot
It actually doesn't matter when we bid. We are bidding and entire year, and you can choose to take vacation whenever you want. You're just stuck on the award window not lining up from Jan 1 - Dec 31. I prefer the way we bid now. January works out better because I have a better idea of what friends we will vacation with are doing in January in the Spring/Summer, and in September I'd be guessing. Plus the vacation year ending in Dec would mean that a lot of pilots would not take vacation and hope to have Christmas and New Years off, which is why its May-April.
It does make it difficult to know if you’ll even have vacation in the spring/summer. That makes it difficult to book vacations that need to be booked 6mo-1yr out. In the Sept bidding system this wasn’t a problem. You also know over a year out if you’re off for Christmas.