You can also do just one day off between RES blocks, and if you don’t make any of them golden X days then you can end up in some 30/168 rest issues if they don’t properly notify you of any tagged-on rest periods to those single days off.

 

Use “Set Condition, between 1 and 3 days on, with at least 1 day off between”. Then add your preferred days off after that. Leave the 31st then 30th as your last prefer offs.

If you get some unexpected coverage awards, and a schedule can still be built with 3-day blocks, that might save it.

 

Say I wanted to work 24-26 and 29-31. Does this logic of leaving the last 2 days off apply if I go in reverse and leave the 1st and 2nd off?

 

Not necessarily. Remember you can strand less than 3-99-5 at the end of a month, but not at the beginning. (for lurkers, if the last day of the prior bid month was a LC day, PBS will look back and enforce 3-99-5. But you CAN bid an X-day, or a Reg line, on the first, thus 'stranding' a lesser block at the end of the prior month. A common technique)

I also like to bid for 3-day blocks when bidding reserve whenever possible. The point of leaving the 31 then 30th at the end is that it will work its way in inverse order of denying days to try to meet the prior commands. If it can meet your command and give you 3 day blocks or less, like at the end of a bid month, the order of the off days won't matter anyway. I'm not looking at December, but often there will be a 'remainder' when the Res days are divided by 3 (this also works when days get prorated down for known absences like training, Vacation, Mil Leave, ALPA, etc. CQ and other 'courses'/training are great ways to 'park' a Res LC day(s) before and/or after, which can also be part of that 'remainder'). I learned the hard way to always put "1" as the low end of a start condition, which accommodates having a 'remainder' like this. Also, if you end up with one 4 day block, and there is still a 'remainder' day, it can park it at the end and still make the rest of it work, because the last day off you 'preferred' was the 31st, then 30th (or as appropriate for the bid month).

 

So, looking at John Bells Reserve Line Simulator, assuming no vacation or CQ, etc, if every Res LC block is 3 days, then there will be 2 LC days left you must put somewhere. That can either be at the end of the bid month, or making two 4-day blocks of reserve. Unless you had reserve in Nov, with a single LC day at the end and can make a 3-day 'carry-in block' of 3 (2 days of which are in Dec), there is no other option I see to keep all 3-day blocks or less, other than what we discussed already.

 

All good info, thanks.

I'm sure I'll find a way to screw it up anyways 🫡

 

Sorry, one more thing... Assuming 3-99-5, the above scenario (where the last day of prior bid month was NOT a Res LC day) would require the 1st be a LC day, else you would exceed the 5 X-day block limit. It behooves a Reserve bidder parking a day or two at the end of a month to consider the following month when bidding. The "PBS Reserve Simulator" at johnfbell.com is an outstanding excel resource every reserve bidder should be using. it knows all the rules, and allows you to put the end of a preceding month into the spreadsheet and it will highlight any limitations or errors. Highly, highly recommend NH's go download that to your computer and iPad.

 

Coverage can throw a monkey wrench in your plan too (especially in a holiday month), so play with a few scenarios to order your prefer offs wisely. IOW, don't limit yourself to 'blocks' of days off. think of every day individually, for which part of a block is most important. For example, if they give you coverage on Sat and Sun, would you rather start your 3 LC days on Friday or Saturday? Putting your off days in an order that accommodates that might save you some angst... Ok, I'm out!

 

Dawg, gracias

 

I stranded a LC day at the beginning of this month, and I was coming off a regular line with off days, so no look back that would give me 3 days.

Didn’t think you could do that, but got schooled by someone of FB and it worked.