rickair7777

I know from experience that I don't like breaks or multiple legs on the backside. I can do one and done red-eyes, or even a short leg before the red eye but then I'm a pumpkin. Work out during the sit? Harder than it sounds and I've tried that sort of thing. Fundamental problem is that family men/women will get immediately yanked back to the front side when they finish a trip, so I'm never really in my circadian groove working nights. If you're single might be easier to manage.

In all other respects UPS would obviously be far superior unless maybe you live in an AS PNW base.

Swedish Blender

Not really going to argue which is better simply because its a personal choice. Just wanted to give an example of a 14 day trip (what I flew anyway).

ANC-ONT, 3 day layover (day)
ONT-HNL, 3 day layover (arrive at midnight)
HNL-SYD. 3 day layover(day)
SYD-PVG 2 day layover (arrive at 1am)
PVG-ANC done for the month (arrive at noon)

Granted seniority plays a part but not as much as one would think for ANC crews. There trips are very similar, you just don't get to pick the days off you want. UPS is getting better at condensing the layovers so things are changing as the 747 takes the flying.

coryk

I'm a FedEx guy and this info is really accurate. Night's aren't for everyone, but most of us make it work when we have to do it. You learn how to properly adjust your body and get adequate sleep beforehand, more so than when I flew for the pax airlines (regional and then UAL).

The great thing about UPS/FDX is our vacation policy and getting large chunks of time off. I had June and August vacations this year. Flying 5 days in June, all daytime line in July, and 7 days in August (all daytime). I haven't done a "night hub turn" since April. 2 yrs on property, 757 (which generally has the worst schedules). Also haven't done a "east coast to west coast 3 leg all nighter" like ShyGuy seems to think we all do....

My best friend flies for Alaska out of LAX and does turns from SNA to SEA and back. Or goes to Maui. That's pretty sweet too....

Ala5ka

I had May and June vacation this year.. I worked 16 days both months, all non commutable.

One of the best parts about Alaska’s vacation is you get (have to) the chance to build your line back to minimum required credit! It makes having vacation oh so much fun.

NewGuy01

The absolute best part of working here. You get to work even harder than normal on your vacation months.


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av8or

If you have to work 16 days in month where you take vacation, um that’s not a vacation. It’s not. It’s worse than a regular job vacation.

“Bob, congrats... this year you get 7 days paid vacation. Feel free to take them at your leisure, but make sure you take them all at once, oh and each of the other three weeks you work that month, I’m gonna need you to put in an extra 13.3 hours of work.”

“Thanks sir, but that’s still a months worth of work just spread out over three weeks instead of four.

“That’s correct Bob. But I’m also going to pay you for the week you’re NOT here. You’re welcome.”

“Well that’s not really a vacation sir, but, if you’re going to do that, are you at least going to pay me what I’d normally make if I was at the office.”

“Well no Bob, I was thinking of just paying you 2/3’s of what you normally make at a day of work.... again, you’re welcome.”

“Sir, honestly that’s not much of a vacation. Can’t I just work three out of four weeks that month, and you pay me as if I worked all four?”

“Bob, I’m sensing some ingratitude. This is a win win. You get seven days off, make more money in the month and I still get a full month of work out of you. The only way I can let you even have seven days off is if you still give me a full month of work during the other three.”

“But sir, EVERYBODY here has a vacation! Why don’t you just hire enough people so that we can all just take an actual vacation without having to work overtime each week?”

“Bob, I’m thinking you’re not really a team player. This is MORE than gracious. If I have to hire more people to cover vacations, we’ll either go out of business, I won’t be able to buy that new copy machine we all want, or I won’t have as much profit to show for the year. You don’t want THAT do you Bob? These are tough times and we’re facing some strong competition!”

“But our competitors don’t do it that way sir. Can’t we just do it like them... a real vacation, you know where I work less that month?”

“No Bob. We’re not them. Btw, have you tried our cheese tray? It’s excellent.”


Maybe one of the singular worst things about our contract.

KnockKnock

Is that using a single day of vacation? Even in months I use a single day I don’t end up working more than half the month without trying. If you used all of your vacation in those two months, how did you end up working so much? I used 2 days this month and work 13 days. I used 1 day next month and work 15 days because I screwed up my bid.

NewGuy01

If you drop one day of vacay and it drops a 4 day you still get the time off to do the thing you wanted to do. But you still need to meet the 77.5 minimum for the month. Have fun with yo trades!


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atooraya

Picture this:

You have 1 week of vacation. Lets say it lands on September 10-17. You bid 60, so you have to bid 60 lines. One of your last choices (worth 80 hours) has 1 day of a 4 day(22 hours) on the 10th and 1 day on a 4 day on the 17th (22 hours). A real contract with real work rules would dump both trips and pay you line guarantee.

However, because of Alaska's outstanding work rules, your 7 days of vacation are worth 21.5 hours. Your awarded 80 hour line has lost 44 hours because of trip drops to 36 hours, and add on your 21.5 hours of credit, which puts you at 57.5 hours. You now have to rebid for open flying trips in 2 rounds, trying to find open trips to get you back up to the line minimum (75). If you can't, then scheduling gets to try and find things for you to fly. If they can't find anything, you get a chance to opt in, or opt out. If you opt out, you get paid 57.5 hours. All because you used your one week of vacation.

If you try and bid a reserve line, you can try to find a line that has 5 days that work over your vacation. Some have 6 days of a reserve in a row. Minimum is 12 days off for reserves. If for some reason, you end up getting a reserve line that has 5 days off over you 7 days of vacation, you don't get any extra days off. You now have 14 days off for your vacation month on reserve by using 7 days of vacation.

KnockKnock

Yeah, I know how it works but to use 7 or 8 days in one month and still have to work 16 days seems self induced. That’s 24.5 or 28 hrs credited to the month that you can drop. That’s most 4 days plus some. Most lines aren’t built to the min credit for the month so there’s usually a small buffer allowing you to drop a trip or two and not go below the min credit especially using that many vacation days. Even a 12 day off line has so many low credit trips crammed into the month, you should still be able to drop a few and not go below using 7 or 8 days. If you’re using less than that, say 1,2 or maybe 3 days, then yes, I can see having to pick back up after dropping a trip and working 15-16 days. All depends on how well you work the system I guess.