all good info, and thanks to those who have posted so far. if i undtestand the vacation problem correctly, it is difficult to get a long enough block of time off to get home to the us? also, it sounds like the company has some autonomy over whether or not you can travel on days off, i.e., they would take issue with you traveling on a four day off block, etc.
my ideal vacation scenario would be to use 4 weeks to travel home to the states, and then the remaining 2 weeks for some kind of family vacation to some other destination. first, is this possible according to emirates' vacation policy (is it possible in theory) and second, what kind of problems, if any, am i likely to run into with this plan? (is it possible in practice?)
thanks!