Hello, excited to be joining y'all early next month! I was curious as to the odds that I would be able to get a specific set of 9 days off next May for a very meaningful family thing. I know that may be a big ask that I am not entitled to, occupational hazard and all that. Still, I am curious as to if there is a chance. I come from an airline with good flexibility for stuff like that, but no PBS, so I am unfamiliar with how it works at Delta. Not sure if there is something like I could waive all other preferences except that stretch of 9 days, if that could maybe work? Or if there is something like that at all as an option with PBS? Doesn't need to be paid vacation time necessarily, I would be willing to take a pay hit to make it happen if needed

I am sure it does work against me that I will be MSP based, so I expect my seniority to improve slowly, relative to other bases. Also, one of those weekends is Memorial Day weekend. That being said, schools wont be out yet in this area, and maybe the new holiday pay means it isn't necessarily harder to get that weekend off?

Thank you for entertaining this newbie question.

 

You did not list your category. WB B - could be a lot harder since you will have almost zero seniority, but I assume you are NB B which should be doable.

We have a few high power drop/scheduling flexibility tools such as Individual Vacation Days (IVDs) and Authorized Personal Drops (APDs) that should enable you to accomplish this. They are limited to two/one occurrence a year respectively, but they refresh annually so if you have not used them by May you should be in a very good position to get the schedule you desire. They can affect your pay but if your priority is days off they are both pure gold. Well maybe the APD is mainly silver, since way back when it was paid.

Another factor is if you bid a line or bid reserve next May - typically reserve guys get "coverage" awards a lot higher in category but you should have a good feel of bidding by next May.

Without knowing more specifics I can only give you a crude estimate so I I put your odds of getting you days off a roughly 94.78%.

Seriously, you should be fine - just save your IVDs and or APD.

Scoop

 

The earlier you explain your situation to the chief pilots office the more likely you will have your time off.

I was at 90% seniority but I needed early June to July third off for a wedding abroad. I emailed them my plan to get those days off (vacation bid, first, bid those days, then use my APD if those didn’t work) I explained my APD wouldn’t work because I needed to drop around the 4th of July but not THE 4th of July.

they responded with “that sounds like a great plan if it doesn’t work email me a couple weeks prior we’ll get the days off”.

YMMV but this is usually how it goes if you explain earlier enough about something you really want off.

if you’re in training it’s trickier.

 

Thanks! MSP73NB with 9 months at the company by next May. Will I still get these IVD/AVD tools next year, having only had 4 months at the company in 2023, or is that not necessarily something I have to accrue?

 

IVD's accrue, since they are essentially using future vacation (and you won't have much). But the APD is available every year, and renews on the first day of the bid month in which your hiring anniversary happens. So.... yes, at least the APD should be available.

This year, Holiday pay for Memorial Day caused a LOT of people getting Memorial Day off, as some people wanted to work.. It was a game changer. Some people could not hold Memorial Day ON...

I couldn't quite tell from your post, are you wanting to stay MSP based? With your screen name, I'm guessing you do. But changing bases should be possible between now and then if you want to be based somewhere you would have more seniority.

 

APD’s usually aren’t good for holidays or two days prior.

 

If the days you want OFF are towards the end of the month... say >18th, there is a pretty good chance that you could "fill up" to the reserve guarantee (usually 72-78 hours or thereabouts). 14 days at 5.25 min credit, or actual, if higher could be fewer days. Most of my career I've been near the plug and have rarely worked Christmas.

PWA Section 23 S. 2. d. states: “A reserve pilot will not be required to remain on call after his accumulated credit equals or exceeds his reserve guarantee."

 

Good point. Absolutely true. 2 Days before to 1 day after they may deny an APD request.

What I was trying to say is that he may get Memorial Day itself off whether he wants it or not, due to the new Holiday Pay. Scoop mentioned 'coverage' awards, but barring that, the APD would help get him up to 4 of the 9 days off. Throw in a few days off before and after a rotation/reserve stretch, and there is a good chance of success, especially with a little seniority.

 

Hmm, the dates I am looking at are May 23-31, so maybe the reserve thing could work if I could stack most of my days at the start of the month? Does that tend to go junior, because you need your reserve days to be at the end of the month to do this “rolling thunder” strategy I keep hearing legends of?

To answer another poster, I do intend to stay MSP based for the time being because I live here.

 

Yes, you can absolutely stack all your reserve days at the front of the month. Same with a Regular line and trips. In theory.

The problem you may (potentially) run into is "coverage" awards. Basically, not enough pilots senior to you have taken trips or had reserve on a given day. Someone has to fly that trip/sit reserve on that day, so they start from the bottom up and just start assigning things until things are 'covered'. It's not uncommon to see weekends with these "coverage" awards for the most junior, though not always. There really isn't a good way to tell ahead of time whether this will trickle down to your seniority or not, so it can be a bit of a crap shoot. Sometimes you might get "coverage" on reserve, but with a line hold the days off. Or vice versa. So build your PBS bid with an instruction like "prefer off 21-31 May, else start next" or similar, and try switching back and forth between reserve and a regular line until a permutation works, and you can hold off something closest to what you need off.

Regardless, even if you get coverage on Memorial Day weekend, and you can't drop it with the APD, as Bucking mentioned, you can get "full", where you exceed the credit of whatever your reserve guarantee is, and then you have "no further obligation to the company". Basically you do all your work early, and are done for the month. Lots of folks will use this technique to (try to) get Thanksgiving and Christmas off. Or things that are relatively at the end of a bid month.

Bottom line, it should be possible, one way or another. Hope that helps.