Vacation Question-Sliding vs. Expanding
 

I just want to be sure that I'm reading the contract right regarding sliding and expanding vacation (since there's a lot of techniques out there, and some of them don't jive with what the contract says, or at least, what I think it says).

I have 8 days of vacation in August, but I have 76:36 hours in my bank.

If I bid a 68 CH month, with two 34 CH pairings, I can slide my vacation, touch both of those trips, and drop the whole thing as per 7.E.2.d.:
There is no maximum limit on the number of credit hours that may be touched by a vacation slide.

But, if I can only touch one of those pairings with a 5 day slide, I can not use expansion to knock out the other 34 CHs because of 7.E.3.b:
A vacation expansion shall not cause a vacation conflict that exceeds the credit hour value of the original vacation period by more than 6 CH. All days in the expanded vacation period shall be consecutive.

So, I'm better off bidding a line with two large CH pairings that I can touch with a slide, rather than trying to expand my vacation, because with the expansion I can only drop a maximum of 54 CH (48 + 6).

Is this right, or am I reading it wrong.

Thanks

You are reading it correctly. You can expand up to the value of your vacation award + 6CH; you can slide and exceed the value of your vacation bank thereby going "negative"; they take the time out of your next years VB or you can do Vacation M/U.

Yep, you got it right. A couple Febs ago I had 8 days of VAC and bid a line with a 10 day trip followed by 10 days off and then a 12 day trip with 10 days of c/o. I slide my VAC right in the middle and touched each trip with buffer = all of Feb off and most of Mar when I conflicted that no longer existent c/i trip on my Mar bid. of course, cost me 120 CH of VAC, but I still got my 70+ ski days. :D

You are exactly right.

On a side note, if it is several trips you are trying to "expand" into vacation and if you exceed 54 CH (8 days x 6 CH = 48 + 6 add'l vacation hours permitted), then the new vacation menu will decline the expansion (first hand experience)....EVEN IF YOU HAVE MORE THAN 54 CH LEFT IN YOUR VACATION ACCOUNT.

Looks like buy-back for me this year.

However, if it is TWO pairings, then you are ok to expand over the 54 CHs and knock both pairings out for the month.

Thanks
 

Thanks everybody.

Lindy, where do you get this? The only way to exceed the 54 hrs is touch both trips with vacation. With expansion they will only remove up to the limit.

fast bid has the vacation wizard program. I have heard it is excellant for maximizing vacation.

You cannot expand your vacation to exceed more than (days X 6) +6hrs.

You can only exceed that with a slide.

Also, be very careful when expanding your vacation. I believe you still have to expand to include the entire trip. In other words, if it's a 3 day trip beginning on the first day of the month..You must put the beginning expansion date as the 1st day of the trip. It won't work if you only expanded to touch the last day of that trip.

I also just found out (after the bids closed) that you cannot expand your vacation in either direction unless you actually touch a trip. I was trying to protect days off from recurrent training. I was able to slide my vacation to the end of the month and touch a trip near the beginning to guarantee 3 weeks of no recurrent training.

BusBoy You are Right
 

I am sorry if I mislead anyone, but if you have TRPs versus Reserve, you can knock out as much vacation you want -- if the vacation TOUCHES the trips.

You can only expand +6 CHs, at +6:01 you will be denied.

Did I say that I have vacation buyback too this year??