bull

Thanks..I appreciate it!

gmanpsu

CR says since the days are in Nov, so you don't need to buy a full 7 days.

gloopy

If that works then wouldn't you have been guaranteed to have gotten those days off anyway? There's a lot of hype about the "slide" but if you have to be able to hold those days off anyway in order to get them on a slide then what's the big deal?

Herkflyr

The big deal is that it is yet another tool in our bag of tricks. This year I myself did not do this, but I have in years past. Sometimes guys don't just want "Christmas off" but perhaps a few days of vacation over the Christmas timeframe. I have found when I have actual vacation days, there is a lot more flexibility with the creation of reserve lines, and of course with the built in credit for each day of vacation you don't have to award as many pairings to create a legal regular line. And of course, even if you are senior, if you truly want vacation days over Christmas, why waste your primary vacation bid for the week spanning Dec 25, when you can use it for the summer weeks, and then just bid an earlier December vacation and slide it? I just personally have really enjoyed having 2-3 days of "real" vacation over Thanksgiving, followed by 3-4 more over Christmas, all initially awarded via a week that touched neither.

This strategy is even better for the summer months. I've bid a vacation week that started in June and spilled over into July. Then I bought more vacation days and placed them on both side of that week. When bidding for each month, I slid the days as appropriate, and voila, now I had a week of June vacation--exactly where I wanted the days---and July as well, all for the "price" of one week bid plus the hours out of my full service bank to buy the additional days.

Of course now that my full service bank is at -29 I can't do that right now!

Rooster435

Not exactly correct. The only thing that prevents a vacation slide is a coverage award. If you don’t get a coverage award for the dates you are trying to slide into then your slide will be honored. Often there will be coverage awards for holidays but not always. This Nov there were no coverage awards for line holders in my category.

bull

Thank you!

CX500T

Appreciate the help. Got both weeks that I wanted.

Now I get to be stuck on a great floating bar going from SEA to Alaska. But there is a GoKart track on the roof.

TED74

Can one use the bank to add days to this year's vacation in March? Never used the bank, so I'm zeroed out. Can I buy only the number of days I can "afford" with credit over 80? Limited to five hours as I am to hit GS trigger?

Herkflyr

I'll answer one by one. Hopefully correctly.


It is theoretically possible, and contractually allowable, but requires the concurrence of crew scheduling if you wish to buy vacation days for this year's vacation. In my experience, the answer has always been "no" but might as well try.


You are mixing and matching bank concepts. A good review of the Scheduling Reference Handbook is in order. You can borrow hours from the bank to take you all the way to minus 30 hours. If you are currently at zero hours--that means you can buy up to eight vacation days, which would take you to -28. (3.30 a day, x8 days =28).

The 80 hours concept you are referencing applies if you have a negative bank balance (like I do). In that case, the first five credit hours over 80 are automatically applied against a negative bank balance. Example: your bank is -20. You fly 83 hours. Three hours are applied against the negative bank, bringing it to -17. You get paid 80. If you had flown 88 hours, five hours automatically apply against the negative balance, and you get paid 83.


Not sure what you are asking here. In a month in which you do NOT fly a GS, the GS trigger means nothing, full service bank-wise.

In a month in which you DO fly a GS...you are limited to using no more than five hours from your bank to increase your projection, if it is less than the GS trigger. However, I am pretty sure you can do that and buy vacation days, in two separate transactions, if you wished.

(From the Scheduling Reference Handbook):

"A regular pilot who has flown a GS rotation:
• will receive double pay, no credit for the portion of his GS rotation that he flew and that exceeds the lesser of the ALV or 75 hours, and
• may use up to five hours of his bank, prior to accounting for the GS rotation, to bring his projection to the lesser of the ALV or 75 hours."


One last thing. Many guys have zero bank balances because we are now in a PBS era where all flying done is paid out. In the Line of Time (LOT) days, you only got paid the cap/ALV. Anything over that turned into what was called "bow wave." Pilots could elect to let the bow wave sit there, and it would carry over into next month's bidding, or you could deposit it into your full service bank, up to a max of 60 hours.

Pilots still can deposit time into the bank, but only hours above 80 are deposited. Further, that is pay you are not getting in lieu of a bank deposit. There are lots of pros and a few cons about a positive bank balance. Each pilot has to figure out what works for him, but I wanted to clarify this for those who might be a bit hazy. One thing is certain: a pilot can buy up to 10 extra vacation days a year. In order to do that, he must have at least a slight positive bank balance, since 10 purchased days equals 35 hours from the bank. Since we can only go to -30, a pilot could not buy the full ten days just by going from zero to negative.

Big E 757

Quick question regarding vacation, but I think I know the answer...I have vacation April 1st-6th. My kids spring break is the last week of March. Is there a way to slide my vacation from April into March when bidding next month for March? Thanks.