Timbo

It should say, " Do you want THOSE 2 DAYS OFF?"

I always put NO because it inhibits my ability to bid trips I want if one might bump up against a day prior to my vacation. BUT, I don't book cruise ships or ski vacations for my vacations. If you've got major plans for your vacation week, you might want to put YES for that, so at least they can't cram you with a trip right up against your departure date.

notEnuf

What about vacation slides in PBS? I assume you are sliding 9 days now vs. 7. I usually prefer to start my vacation not on a Sunday.

Gspeed

It's definitely not semantics. In one situation you get minimum guarantee and in the other you get less than that. 48 hours could cost you around 9 hours of pay. I found this tidbit from NN-23-07:

48 Hours Free of Duty
In addition to the increase in vacation week accrual, pilots will also now have the option to receive an unpaid 48 hours “free of duty” before their primary vacation week. The Company cannot schedule pilots for any duty during this period, and the pilot may not be awarded or assigned any flying. If a pilot were to fly into this 48-hour period due to a reroute or late operations, it is treated the same as a vacation day.


It sure would have been nice for DALPA to release some sort of Q&A concerning this new provision.

m3113n1a1

You're insane. It's just guaranteed X days (or days off) before your vacation if you want them. What's the big deal?

Gspeed

The Negotiator Notepad above disagrees with your assessment of them being guaranteed X-days which are paid and don’t reduce your monthly guarantee. Now who’s insane?

Myfingershurt

since when are we paid for x days? You know x days are days off right? You are never paid for days off, even on reserve. Your reserve guarantee is figured reserve days worked and any other credit, vaca, training, etc. adding two x days to the front of your vacation will not affect your paycheck in anyway. You get a set amount of x days. You can almost always put them in front of vacation with decent seniority. Most people try to stack x days on the front and back of vaca. I think you’re over thinking something.

FangsF15

You are too wooden in what you are reading. Everyone telling you they are just like PTP, or pre-posted X-days is correct. It’s simply a way to extend your primary vacation a little longer. Thats it.

This is a good option, not one that costs you pay. ALPA isn’t going to put anything out on this, because no one seriously thinks if you select yes you are giving up 2/30’s of a months pay. It’s “unpaid” because it’s not worth anything for line construction purposes, or pay purposes like the vacation to which it is attached.

Gspeed

Yes that’s correct that X-days aren’t paid but if these are like pseudo PD’s then it will have an impact on pay. If they are treated like an Absence, then they will pro-rate X-days. If they are immovable X-days, then that’s a different scenario as well.

I hope you’re right. I do find it amusing that everyone here is spitting facts but none can provide an exact reference in the PWA or SRH.

Btw, a buddy sent me a response from a rep on this topic that stated that the NC is working on this issue as we speak. Hmm.

tennisguru

Everything I've said in this thread has been in relation to PTP days, with the guess that the 2 days prior to vacation would be treated exactly the same. I assume this because PTP days are the closest thing we have contractually to compare to. This is all in the absense of permant guidance from the union via a comm piece or update to the SRH/PBS Handbook. Obviously once guidance comes out there will be no debate, and we will all know who was right and who was wrong.

I will say there is a bit of an argument towards them being different if the company wants to view the 2 days off prior to vacation as an extension of your vacation. Since vacation reduces your availability they might try to argue that tacking on unpaid days is in effect adding two unpaid vacation days which affects the pay/days off calculation for reserves.

Lou Reed

​​​​​To someone who never thought much of this issue, as I've just always bidded days Off around vacation, does this mean I now have 2 more days for a little further "padding?"