Can I sound like a much younger sort and reply with "tell me you've never used, nor understand the greatness of IVDs, without telling me you've never used nor understand the greatness of IVDs."

NO ONE thinks of IVDs as "monetizing" a damn thing. But they are priceless. The real benefit is that long after vacation bids are awarded, life happens and having the flexibility to use your IVDs makes life just a little better. Don't forget that IVDs are processed with the same priority as APDs, thus you only need 25% reserve coverage over the days you are trying to place the IVDs on.

Here are a couple of very recent examples from...me. I used one IVD to drop a reserve on call day earlier this month so as to extend a series of off days so I could go on a great fishing trip with my boys and some friends. I had no plans to go on this trip when I was bidding vacation back in Jan and Feb. But when June rolled around we had made some fun plans, and I used a day from my March vacation and applied to a reserve on call day. Now I had the flexibility to take a mini vacation fishing, instead of throwing a wrench into the works due to an on call day. Even better, for next month (July) I used four more IVDs placed right over a M-Th block of on call days, so I can go visit my parents who live in another state. Can you not see the life benefit to this? Or should I just happily hang onto to an otherwise-not-important week of March vacation because a pilot doesn't get IVDs and thinks we are all mercenaries for using them.

I remember some old grumpy sorts who once complained about why we were wasting efforts to secure Vacation Slide. "Why would you want to slide your vacation?" I was once asked. My reply was "so you think every pilot's vacation plans should always begin on a Sunday and end on a Saturday?" Again, life happens and plans change. That's why IVDs and Vacation Slide are both such great tools for increasing your QOL.