It all depends.......Our vacation day vlaue is 6 hours per day.

Lets say a Junior pilot has 14 days vacation for the year in two 7 day blocks........a summer period in JUN and a winter period.

His total vacation BANK value for the year is 84 hours ,
14 days x 6hrs per day = 84 hours in Vacation bank.

How the pilot manipulates his bank is up to him.

Lets say the pilot bids and is awarded an INTL trip in June worth 72 hours.
He has 7 days of vacation worth 42 hours.......He can slide his days +- 5days to conflict or deconflict with that 72 hour trip.

If he conflicts with that trip, the trip gets dropped, he gets paid the credit value of that trip &72 hrs and his vacation bank is debited 72 hours......so for his next vacation period, he has 7 days worth of vacation but only 12 hours left in his vacation bank.

If he deconflicts his vacation from that trip, he flies the trip gets paid for the trip and now still has 84 hours of vacation bank intact.........although he does not get any vacation for this month but that was his choice.................but when his next 7 days of vacation comes up he can now has 84 hours of bank for a 7 day period....................in other words he can drop a whole 84 hours worth of trips....and get credit for them.

Another option after the monthly bids close.....if he wishes to drop or conflict with the 72 hour trip......he does this by sliding the vacation, but he doesn't want to go into deficit vacation bank.........i.e. he only wants 42 hours deducted, he can request a Make Up vacation trip out of the open time.......he can request a 30 hour trip (for exmaple) that fits his needs and it is awarded to him per seniority...

If the pilot is a workaholic......he can purposely deconflict all his vacation for both periods and at the end of the years get paid 84 hours or any positive vacation bank that he may have left.

Also when the company is short manned.like we have been for the last 8 years...........the company often offers to Buy back vacation. If they offer vacation buy back it is awarded on a first come firt serve ( seniority kind of) basis. You sell back whater vacation value you have for that month....@ 6 hrs per day.....like 42 for the above example. The company will add 24 hours to it for a total of 66 and pay you cash on the 15th of the following month.

We have other beenyoe like the ability to not only slide the vacation period + - 5 days but we can also Expand the vacation period.....into other trips but not to exceed 6 hour above your vacation day value.

Complicated but as you can see, very flexible with options for both the Work a holics and the TIME off junkies.......

You can do similar stuff if you want to bid reserve for a month when you have vacation. You can maximize $$ or Maximize time off..........your choice.