From my look at it when the merger was first announced, the one big benefit I saw is that for the guys that want to ***** (can we say that here? edit... guess not... rhythms with "door") they can pick up flying over their vacation once the month starts. Other than a last step in the recall process, you can't fly on vacation days at Hawaiian. The downside of being able to fly over vacation though is that senior guys will bid for prime weeks they don't really want, knowing that there will be flying to pick up over those days later on. It prevents junior guys from getting those weeks and then the days don't actually get used for vacation anyways.

I think there are some cool credit tricks they can use vacation days for in PBS that we can't, but I don't really fully understand it.

As a more junior pilot in seat, I like the Hawaiian way I think, because even at my low bidding position, I was able to get weeks in June and August when it got to me because a lot of senior guys who didn't really need/want vacation didn't bid more than the minimum 7 days, and left a ton of slots open for everybody else. I'd guess about 60% of those guys will use the rest of their vacation bank for Pop Up or just grabbing slots later on, and 40% will just cash it out at the end of the year.

 

Being able to pickup on top of vacation helps the company more than it helps pilots

 

Or better yet no trade clause (or as at movable at Hawaiian) during the dates you referenced. That would force seniors to enjoy it, or not bid it and let it fall junior. Boom!

there’s your “how do you fix it??”

 

I agree with you that most things are subjective. That being said, we bid our vacation at the start of the year and have a lot of flexibility in how we use it from there on out. Cancel it, move it(without having to rely on another pilot that wants your days off who also has the vacation you want, or, you know, nepotism). Get it paid out if you want(other than the one mandatory week you have to take each year). Drop trips with it.

It is objectively (not subjectively) better.

 

But the folks who work exclusively over their vacation to brag about the insane credit will be so sad.

 

Seniority based premium pay would fix that. Can get insane credit without having vacation.

 

I agree, being facetious is hard to display online.

 

I caught it. Just trying to point out that there are other ways. Ways that don’t involve picking up straight time over vacation.

 

Are Alaska pilots required to bid and use all of their vacation in the year? At Hawaiian we are only required to bid for 7 days of vacation. We can use the rest as pop up vacation or bid for it later. Anything unused gets paid out at the end of the year. Vacation trading seems like a ridiculous concept that can be easily abused.

 

https://youtu.be/Hrm-rPSCIBw?si=wpBKoQJ30cf8vJR-